WINTER PARK — Bob Brunson didn’t discover the joy of skiing until he was 49 years old, but he will tell you it has changed his life.

For the past 41 years.

A World War II fighter pilot who will turn 91 in June, Brunson has to take it easy, and he skis with an oxygen tank because of a lung problem that almost killed him a year ago. But he’s a proud member of Winter Park’s SkiMeisters club for senior citizens — and a popular one at that.

“The women love him,” said SkiMeister member P.J. Slovikoski, 68. “The SkiMeister women love Bob.”

What’s not to love? I wanted to hug him the whole time I was with him. And I want to be like him when I grow up.

Brunson first got hooked on skiing because it was “something physical to do,” but it soon meant much more to him, as it does for most of us who feel the joy it brings us deep in our souls.

“The more I got into it, it was like life itself,” Brunson said. “There’s always a steeper slope. Something more, you wonder, ‘Can I do it?’ And unless you get into it and do it, you’ll never do it. A little steeper slope, a little faster turn. Do the bumps, do powder.

“And in life, if you don’t extend yourself, you just sit.”

But when you do extend yourself, you have a chance to inspire others. Especially when you are 90 years old, radiating a gentle spirit and a joy for life.

“He’s just a role model that says don’t stop, don’t quit, keep on keeping on,” Slovikoski said.

I could have listened to Bob talk for hours about being a Navy pilot. He was walking to the boarding house where he lived as a student at Kansas State the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Brunson enlisted and flew Corsairs as part of a “night squadron” in the Pacific. Later he became a test pilot.

“Staying in the reserve, I had an engine quit on me in a Corsair, wiped it out, tore it up in three or four pieces, but was able to walk away from it,” Brunson said. “My wife was pregnant with our first child, and I didn’t sit as comfortably in the cockpit after that.”

Brunson discovered skiing when he was working for Ralston Purina and a job took him to Selkirk, N.Y., for a feed-mill project. One of the guys decided to go skiing at Hunter Mountain and asked if anyone wanted to go along.

“I thought, ‘Maybe I ought to try it,’ ” Brunson said. “I was just pushing 50. So I did, and I got bit.”

Funny how it worked out. A few months later, he got a job with Stearns-Roger in Denver, which allowed him to pursue his new passion wholeheartedly. He lived in Aurora and got a lot of use out of a cabin his parents owned at Eldora.

“I would come up to Eldora and I could ski at night for $3,” Brunson said. “Having gone through a divorce, it helped me find myself — quit smoking. I admired what the ski patrol was doing, and I decided, ‘I’ve got to help,’ so I joined the Eldora Ski Patrol. Couldn’t pass their tests, of course, but became an auxiliary, which helped finance my skiing until I could pass the test.”

Brunson had been a loner, but skiing changed that. He discovered the SkiMeisters through a tennis friend, a Brit who had played violin in the London Symphony before World War II and flew gliders for the RAF, crashing one into France on D-Day. Jack Elford died a few years ago.

“He had a sense of humor,” Brunson said. “This crowd will never forget him. He could play the violin with such a delicate touch. It’d just melt your heart.”

Several dozen SkiMeisters enjoyed Winter Park and one another the day I skied with Bob. They were so much fun to be around, so full of life.

“This bunch does hiking, biking, tennis — so many things — and they’re supportive of one another,” Brunson said. “I just can’t say enough for them. When I was in the hospital, I got stacks of cards from these people.”

The SkiMeisters threw Bob a “belated” 90th birthday party in December — on the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

“A whole bunch of SkiMeisters showed up, and he skied Jack Kendrick (trail) for a number of times,” said Nora Johnston, 76. “He was skiing so fast that the group could hardly keep up with him.”

Brunson is grateful for the attention skiing has been bringing him lately, but shy about it.

“I don’t ski long, and I don’t ski hard,” Brunson said. “I just cruise. But I’m so fortunate.”

John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com