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Dianne Binger loved skiing in snowstorms.
Perhaps the tenacity in the face of turbulence such a sport requires is what made her so good at selling Salt Lake City to skeptical convention planners, friends and colleagues said upon hearing of her death from cancer early Thursday.
"Dianne has been selling Salt Lake City all of her professional life, and along the way, she helped make it a great destination for meetings," said longtime colleague Nan Groves Anderson of the Moab-based Utah Tourism Industry Coalition. "Her death is devastating to the state's tourism industry."
Binger, president of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau since 2001, spent 18 years with the agency in various positions. Before that, she worked for Sheraton Corp. and Alta's Rustler Lodge.
During her career, Binger distinguished herself not only as a champion of Utah's tourist destinations, but as one of Salt Lake City's most respected business leaders, said Nancy Mitchell of the Salt Lake Chamber's Women's Business Center.
She played an integral role as Salt Lake City played host to the 2002 Olympics, Mitchell said. More recently, she deserves an enormous amount of credit for helping to secure funding to expand the Salt Palace Convention Center and keep the lucrative twice-yearly Outdoor Retailer trade shows in Salt Lake City.
"Dianne has always been a driving but quiet force, mostly because she worked so smart, and often behind the scenes," Mitchell said. "She was so dignified, so elegant, so intelligent. Her death is a terrible loss."
SLCVB co-workers remember Binger as a generous mentor, both professionally and personally. They describe her as a skilled manager for whom people gladly worked hard.
"She was much more excited about what you accomplished than about what she accomplished and it came from within. It was very natural," said Cliff Doner, who was named the bureau's acting president Thursday. "She was sophisticated but caring. She brought a certain grace to everything she did that everyone marveled at."
A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Binger is survived by her husband, Bill, and two sons, Jonathan and Christopher.
Formal services were pending Thursday. Colleagues plan a memorial service at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Salt Palace.