Cynthia J Molburg

CINDY MOLBURG, March 12, 1927-April 15, 2013

Cindy Molburg, known as the publisher/editor of a monthly newspaper about sled dog racing, Team & Trail, passed away on April 15, at her home in Center Harbor with her family around her. Although Cindy did not join her husband Richard, or Dick as he was known or her children on the race trail, she was at all the races helping with their teams (daughter Debbie won the Laconia World Championship twice). As soon as a race was completed the dogs and the drivers might rest, but Cindy would be hard at work sending race results and news out in her paper that was to sled dog sports what Variety was to movies and theater. For nearly forty years, she ran the paper, until 2004, when she turned running Team & Trail over to her granddaughter. She and Dick expected to kick back, and to take some well deserved time off. Unfortunately, Dick succumbed to heart failure less than six months after they retired. Cindy never lost her enthusiasm for sled dog racing, and was an avid spectator at local sled dog events. In 2008, she watched excitedly as Debbie ran the famed long-distance sled dog race of Alaska, the Iditarod.
Lakes Region inhabitants all of their adult lives, Cindy and Dick moved from The Weirs to Center Harbor in 1956. At that time they owned and ran a restaurant called The Lobster Pound. Later, Dick started up a dog team to follow his trap lines and one of those dogs, a St Bernard, was the first Molburg racing dog when it pulled Debbie in a Kid-n-Mutt race in 1957. It was not long before Dick had his own string of racing huskies. At a race in Quebec, the Molburgs became friends with Lee and Mel Fishback who had begun Team & Trail three years earlier. Cindy had some newspaper experience having worked first as a proofreader and then as a reporter for local papers. Mel asked Cindy to become the Eastern Editor for the sled dog newspaper, and not too much later, Cindy took over full Publisher/Editor status. The paper was printed on a press that Cindy bought and set up in her front room, and her six children all took a role in collating the pages lined up on the long kitchen table. From Cindy's kitchen table, Team & Trail became a major factor in the growth of sled dog racing around the world. When sled dog racing needed an international association to standardize rules and racing events, the Molburgs were called upon by dint of their knowledge and dedication to the sport to assist with first the formation of ISDRA (International Sled Dog Racing Assn), and then rule making for that organization. Now sled dog racing takes place in the form of different kinds of events in nearly every part of the world and much credit belongs to Cindy Molburg for this. The Molburgs not only supported the sport in far-flung places, but also devoted tremendous amounts of time and effort with the Lakes Region Sled Dog Club in keeping the Laconia World Championship a yearly event. The Laconia race was a special favorite of Cindy's as, living in the Lakes Region; it was her "hometown" race.
Cindy may have retired as Editor/Publisher, but she never retired from loving sled dogs. In 2011, she co-authored a book, The History of Dog Sledding in New England. Her hand as an editor and the wealth of information and photos from Team & Trail archives has made that book a truly definitive history.
Cynthia Molburg leaves her six children, Deborah, Sherry, John, Pamela, Rick and Joe and their families.