Alumni

Reubecca Jane Luke, Becky, of Hotchkiss, CO, went to Heaven peacefully November 6, 2024. Becky was born on July 13, 1968, in Paonia, CO, to Dixie (Jacobs) and Dion Luke. In 1970 her family moved to Glenwood Springs. Becky spent summers on the Jacobs Ranch at the bottom of McClure Pass and Ragged Mountain. She and Grandpa Stanley tended sheep, cattle, and irrigation on horseback. One morning she called and asked Dion and Dixie to guess what she and Grandpa had done the previous day. “We bought me a horse of my own!” was her joyful answer to her own question. Becky became an outstanding horsewoman. She competed in 4-H and the Appaloosa Horse Association in CO, winning the Reserve National Junior Barrel Racing Championship in 1984. She rode Junior English and dressage in CA competitions.

Becky was actively involved in the Ragged Mountain Outfitters business. As an infant she accompanied her dad and mom on an elk hunt; she packed an elk back to camp from Anthracite country at 10. When the outfitting business acquired a permit in the Snowmass Wilderness, she taught the President of the American Dental Association how to fit his down bag back into a stuff bag. When a guide coming from Alaska got delayed, she guided a reluctant hunter to a 5-point bull and another hunter to a cow the next day. She killed her first deer at 13 and a six-point elk at 16. She went to bear baits and followed baying dogs on lion hunts.

Becky was a competitive basketball player in junior high and her freshman year of high school. Then she received a scholarship offer to Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale as a sophomore and wanted that challenge. And CRMS offered horsemanship. She returned to Glenwood the following year determined to follow her passion to ride horses. She graduated from Glenwood Springs High School in 1986 and continued her education at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, graduating in 1990 with a business marketing degree.

Becky’s first pharmaceutical job was with Marion, Merrell Dow traveling four states calling on doctors. Nebraska was her new home. Next, she worked for Johnson and Johnson as a manager of other reps. She moved to Denver and bought her first house in Washington Park. She eventually became manager for J&J in western US. She received prestigious awards at J&J, including Top 10 in the Nation. Next challenge was with a start-up company, Alza, launching a new drug. She was a teacher and a leader in these jobs.

Becky married Jason Young from Carbondale in 1994. Jason was also in the pharmaceutical business. They remodeled Becky’s 100-year-old house and started the remodel and flip or upgrade housing cycle. They eventually bought a house in Ken Carroll overlooking Denver. Becky bought a horse which was kept at a stable near the airport so she could ride before she boarded a flight and when she came home. She won the amateur reining at the National Western Stock Show in 2001. In 2002 Becky and Jason quit their jobs and traveled the world for the next 18 months. Divorce happened.

Eventually Becky met Terrill Ostrum from Montana. They had horses, cattle, and friendships in common. Becky moved to the Red Lodge, MT, area and traveled with Terrill who brokers cattle across the US. His customers loved her as she could work cattle, help with weigh-ups, or ask about their family. Fletch became her go-to horse. In 2015 Becky & Fletch won the National Reined Cow Horse Association buckle for the state of MT. Together Terrill and Becky campaigned a mare to the Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno, NV, ending up 13th out of 200 entries.

Montana winters sent Becky back to Denver where she started an Air BnB in Washington Park and Dirty Paws, a pet care service. Denver was growing too fast for a girl whose heart was in the country. She asked about coming back to Hotchkiss and converting the house her great-grandparents had built into an Air BnB. She developed an agri-business at Jacobs Ranch Homestead that attracted travelers from across the US and the world. Dirty Paws gained the confidence of many locals who wanted to be away and leave their animals at home.

Becky leaves childhood and college friends, people she mentored, horse friends, and a heart-broken family—including her 98-year-old grandmother, Arlene Luke of Denver, aunt’s: Janice Chesnik of Paonia and Mary Jacobs of Washington, uncle Greg Luke of Westminster, nieces, and nephews: Asti Luke, Katie Sinclair, Jennifer Murphy, Jason Jacobs, and Ed Chesnik. Her grandparents: Ed Luke, Marjorie and Stanley Jacobs welcomed her arrival at Heaven’s Door. And “Goose,” a young gelding, she recently bought with the plan of riding in the mountains and getting him ready to do arena reining or working cow horse, nickers when someone comes with his grain in the morning.

Services will be held at the Elks Lodge in Hotchkiss on Friday, December 13, at 11 am followed by lunch and visiting time. In lieu of flowers, we believe Becky would appreciate a donation to: End of the Trail Rescue, 5814 Hwy 348, Olathe, CO 81425. View the Internet obituary and sign the online guest registry at: www.taylorfuneralservice.com.

Obituary published on Legacy.com by Taylor Funeral Service & Crematory - Delta on Nov. 25, 2024.

Richard Jefferson Smith, Jr. (Jeff), 73, died Tuesday, September 3, 2024, after a battle with cancer. Born December 4, 1950, in Hammond, Indiana, to Barbara Bates Smith and Richard Jefferson Smith, Jeff grew up along the shores of Lake Michigan, exploring the dunes, sailing, and swimming. He spent his high school years at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado. He attended Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, to earn his Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering in 1981. He then returned to Colorado to enjoy Colorado's great outdoors.

After a remarkable career as the Head of Engineering for Leitner/Poma of America, designing ski lifts worldwide, Jeff retired to volunteer, enjoy his passion for the outdoors, and travel.

With a true zest for life, Jeff channeled his energy into a deep love for the outdoors. Whether carving down the slopes in Telluride, exploring trails on hiking and camping trips, or perfecting his swing on the golf course, he approached every day with passion and enthusiasm. His love for the open road was best expressed through his BMW motorcycle, which he rode proudly as a dedicated member and officer of the BMW Riders of Western Colorado. Jeff's adventurous spirit and love for nature were indeed at the heart of who he was.

Jeff lived a life marked by love, adventure, and dedication to family. Throughout his cancer diagnosis, he maintained a spirit of strength and grace, inspiring all who knew him. The family extends their heartfelt thanks to the compassionate caregivers at Community Hospital for their support during Jeff's cancer treatment.

Jeff is survived by his three children, Brenden Smith, Lindsey Walker, and Kirsten Eppler; his four grandchildren, Alexander Walker, Dylan Walker, Mason Walker, and Ava Walker; his brother, Tom Smith; his sister, Ann Storrar; and his longtime partner Christina Bybee.

Those who knew Jeff will remember his warmth, wisdom, and the positive impact he had on everyone he met. Jeff will be deeply missed and lovingly remembered.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by The Daily Sentinel from Sep. 20 to Sep. 21, 2024.

May 23, 1991 – September 8, 2024

Dillon Lee Smith, age 33, passed away tragically on Sunday, September 8, 2024, from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

Dillon was born on May 23, 1991, in Aspen, Colorado to Charles Smith and Hilary Fletcher. He attended Aspen Country Day School and graduated from Colorado Rocky Mountain School in 2009. A lifelong resident of Colorado, he had recently moved to Des Moines, Iowa.

Dillon enlisted at the age of 26 and proudly served his country in the United States Army. He was a member of 95th Engineer Company, 84th Engineer Battalion, stationed in Hawaii. Dillon was an avid outdoorsman and had a special affinity for motorcycles. At age 18, prior to his enlistment, he instructed Special Forces personnel to ride dirt bikes in environments that they would encounter overseas. Dillon was also a firearms training expert and routinely returned to Colorado to educate people entering the field of private security. He was most recently employed at Big Barn Harley Davidson as a motorcycle technician and had just completed the New Mechanics Course.

Dillon is survived by his mother, Hilary Fletcher; father, Charles Smith (Tina White); brother, Cody Smith; his treasured American bulldog, Rico Suavé; his grandmother, Barbara F. Smith; his beloved cousins, Lora Davis-Fletcher (Daniel Sloniker) and Emily Davis-Fletcher; and many extended family members and friends. He was preceded in death by his grandparents Lawrence W. Smith, Willard Allen Fletcher, and Jean Tucker Fletcher.

Dillon loved the people in his life above all else. Underneath his warrior demeanor was a soulful, caring, and hilariously funny young man. His zest for life led him to deep and meaningful connections with those he loved.

There will be a Celebration of Life for Dillon at the Powderhorn Mountain Resort, 48338 Powderhorn Road, Mesa, Colorado on Saturday, October 19th, 2024 at 1:00pm.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Dillon’s memory to the Wounded Warrior Project at https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org.

Liz (Elizabeth) Hirschland, 64, skier, horsewoman, climber, chef, and a life-long resident of Teton County, died March 4 from a long illness at her home in Wilson.

Liz Hirschland was born on August 26, 1959, in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City to Richard and Dorothy Hirschland. The family lived in Closter, New Jersey. 

Liz’s father died 15 months later. Dorothy then drifted around Europe and Israel with her children and returned to New Jersey when it was time to start school. Climbing brought the family to Teton County in 1965. After two summers at the old Climber’s Camp on Jenny Lake, the family moved in September 1966 into a kit-built A-Frame 1.25 miles along a dusty dirt road south of the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson.

Liz attended the Wilson School with her twin, Georg Hirschland, and their older sister, Victoria Hirschland Hess. Liz later attended Jackson Hole Middle School and Jackson Hole High School for a year each. The family moved frequently, and over the years, she attended schools in Closter, NJ, El Cerrito, CA, Carbondale, CO, Lake Placid NY, Ulster County, NY, and Vershire, VT, rarely for more than a year or two. She briefly attended SUNY-New Paltz in New York.

In Wilson, Liz started riding, and it became her lifelong passion. Up until her diagnosis with Bulbar Palsy-ALS in August 2022, Liz kept up to a dozen horses on her Wilson property, where she broke, rode, and trained them in both dressage and Western riding.

Liz competed in dressage regionally; she taught riding, boarded horses, and assisted her husband, John Watsabaugh, partner of 16 years and spouse of 3 years, with his hunting and other pack trips. Together, they built their home on the Fall Creek Road property. Shortly before Liz was diagnosed, she purchased a miniature horse and a Shetland pony so that she could teach more small children. Unfortunately, her first notable symptom was the loss of her speaking voice, and her young students could no longer understand her. She continues to coach her most dedicated friends. During the year following her diagnosis, she found homes for her horses with friends and family, though she continued to pine for her competitive dressage horse, Rim.

Liz was also well known on the slopes of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. She could, and would, ski anything with great style and beauty. Liz was a member of the Jackson Hole Air Force, and was at her happiest venturing outside the Resort boundaries. She raced in the downhill portion of the Pole Pedal Paddle for a number of years. 

Since her disease started at her throat and worked its way down, she was able to get in one last ski season (22-23), enjoying the company of her many friends as she played on Granite and Glory, and beyond. She was not able to ski her 100 days in 2022-23: she only made 75. But because of her strength through adversity, someone felt that she deserved to ski that one last day after the season ended. She was a winner in the eyes of all who knew her.

One of the hardest things to explain to Liz, as she became weaker and weaker in November 2023, was that she could not go out and ski. She had asked to go to the Village to buy new boots, because her old boots had become too stiff for her to get on. Sadly, she no longer had the strength to open her performance boots to slide her foot in. That and her tendency to fall while walking on grade, or even no-grade, meant that skiing couldn't happen. She went adaptive skiing this year, and, in true Liz fashion, she turned straight for the powder. 

Liz had a typical Jackson Hole career path. She was a ski instructor at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in the 1970s, and a jeweler with her first husband Michael Winchell. She worked in a number of restaurants as a cook or waitress. She baked for Wild Flour Bakery, and she catered, specializing in wedding cakes and desserts. She once delivered a wedding cake to the Cheney residence in Wilson. She worked for a dozen years as a chinking contractor, on both new construction and repairs.

Every year, Liz went hunting, like many others in Jackson Hole. Most years she “got her elk.” But even when she didn’t, she found joy in mounting her horse Rim, and riding behind her house toward Black Canyon. Within minutes, she would be on Forest Service land, alone with her horse, feeling the quiet dawn sounds of the forest, gradually seeing more than just shadows of the lodgepole pine, until the sun rose, and if she saw it, she would get her elk. 

Liz shared her love of hunting with many friends, who sometimes got their first elk with her. Liz was also the friend to call for help to haul-out an elk. For years, she butchered elk in her kitchen, teaching her sister and nephews how to cut the meat, grind it, and wrap it. Liz believed in knowing where your food came from.

Shortly after her terminal diagnosis in August 2022, Liz asked her friends to help her with a celebration of life. She wanted to be there to hear her friends’ remembrances and join in the celebration. Dozens gathered at Owen Bircher Park in September 2022 to recall how Liz came into their lives. Her friends spoke of how beautifully she skied and rode. When Liz’s strength helped her outlive her life expectancy, friends gathered with her again a year later. 

She befriended many newcomers to Jackson Hole. She skied backcountry with them, took them on trail rides or pack trips, helped them get settled into jobs, and even climbed the Grand overnight, lit by the full moon, with one of those newcomers. She was well loved for the spark of joy she gave her friends. 

In the months after her diagnosis with Bulbar Palsy-ALS, she was fortunate to retain the ability to use her limbs, even as she lost her voice, and her face and neck became paralyzed. She continued to enjoy skiing, and her friends have remarked on her incredible fighting spirit. Liz and a group of friends even took weekly American Sign Language lessons on-line so she could communicate with them better. Liz continued to ride when she could and continued to travel outside Jackson Hole to visit friends. She lived as big a life as she could. 

She is survived by her husband, John Watsabaugh of Wilson, her step-children, Jesse Watsabaugh and Jack Watsabugh, both of Jackson, her sister, Victoria Hirschland Hess of Jackson and half-sisters Joan Hirschland and Suzy Pruden, and her nephews, Richard Hess of Jackson and Andrew Hess of Omaha, Neb., many loving friends, and Bruiser and Badger, her Corgi mixes. She was predeceased by her twin, Georg, and her parents. 

In lieu of memorials, consider a donation to one of these non-profits that were important to Liz: Teton SARS, Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center, or the Jackson Food Cupboard.

Plans for a gathering of friends will be announced.

October 2, 1941 – May 27, 2023

Passionate about nature, art, literature, and her wide circle of friends and family, Patricia Stein Spitzmiller of Dillon – “Pat” to all who knew her – died on May 27th doing what she loved most: exploring the world, enjoying the outdoors, and spending time with friends old and new.

Born on October 2, 1941 to Marge and Henry Stein, Pat spent her earliest years in Highland Park, Illinois, before moving with her parents and her two elder sisters to Aspen at the age of ten, and thus began her lifelong devotion to the wildlands of Colorado. Educated at the Aspen public schools, Colorado Rocky Mountain School, Colorado Women’s College and the University of Colorado, Pat met her husband, George, at her mother’s antique shop in Aspen, and the two of them were married on April 19th, 1969. Three years later they welcomed their daughter Kate.

The family of three spent nearly two decades living in Lexington, Massachusetts, where Pat worked as an educator and then as an occupational therapist. Although profoundly grief-stricken by George’s untimely death at the age of fifty, Pat determinedly built a deeply satisfying new life for herself in middle age, first by leaving New England for Dillon, where she and George had a vacation home, and then by creating a far-reaching network of friends and interests while also traveling the world.
Pat delighted in the active, outdoorsy lifestyle of Summit County and immersed herself in hiking, snowshoeing, paddling, and skiing.

Nearly all of her travels involved strenuous outdoor activity, including her final trip to French Polynesia. When not out exploring the world, she treasured visits from her relatives of all ages and her far-flung network of friends, but she also cherished time alone reading or walking on local trails with her beloved golden retriever, Josie. She was an ardent supporter of culture and the arts, including the National Repertory Orchestra, the Keystone Science Center; and Theatre SilCo. Locals might have encountered her anywhere from Summit Public Radio & TV, where she was a past board member; to the local elementary school, where she and Josie read to children; to Colorado Mountain College, where she mentored first-generation college students.

Pat is survived by her sisters and brothers-in-law, Mary Dominick-Coomer and her husband Sven of Aspen and Carolyn Shohet and her husband Dick of Carlisle, Massachusetts; her daughter Kate; and a wide multi-generational circle of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. Memorial gifts in her honor may be made to The Summit Foundation or Summit County Animal Control and Shelter.

Charles Meredith Moore, or Charley, or even Chas, died Saturday, July 29, in his home in Satank. Just a month short of his 79th birthday.

His death was unique in that he planned it. Having spent several years in assisted living in Longmont because no dialysis center exists in the Roaring Fork Valley, Charley stopped the treatments and asked to be taken home, knowing he would soon die.

"I'm not getting any better on dialysis," he said. "Enough is enough."
Arriving seven days before his death, he was happy to be back in his old farmhouse, amid the books, paintings, photographs, and memorabilia of his very active life. He had no doubt he had made the right decision.

As word of his return spread, his house began to fill with family, friends, and neighbors, all in awe of his courageous life and now death, which he faced without fear.

Charley grew up in Denver, the fifth of seven kids, as was his father, an architect who collaborated with Buckminster Fuller to create the geodesic dome and his mother, a Canadian songstress and socializer.

Chas was smart, perceptive, and voraciously curious, but always preferred the outdoors to a classroom. He graduated from Denver Country Day School and earned a bachelor's in history from Lake Forest College. He spent some time in India with the Peace Corps and then tried law school at Denver University, until he realized he didn't want to make a living off of other people's problems.

During the Vietnam war, Chas was called before the draft board. He was granted conscientious objector status for ethical reasons- an extremely rare occurrence.

While coaching kids' soccer in Denver, a wealthy family friend, recently widowed, asked Charley to help her clean out her husband's "stuff." Word spread about Charley's willingness to help, and his kindness, trustworthiness, and honesty. Unintentionally, he began creating his own vocation of caring for people, moving and storing furniture, and fixing things. He never had another job.

Chas was rewarded handsomely for his kindness, bestowed with unending gifts of books, tools, guns, and collectibles, including a classic '55 Thunderbird from the Coors family and a house just one block away from his childhood home on Humboldt Street in Denver (he added a second floor on the garage for storage.)

Charley gave away more than he got, which just kept the stuff coming… and he could remember the story behind every piece of furniture, vehicle, painting, etc.

Throughout his life, Chas climbed mountains and ran rivers all throughout the west. He was one of the very few to go left at Bedrock without dire consequences, and he volunteered his time and equipment to take CRMS students on numerous rafting trips.

In the early 1990s, Charley bought the Fender farm in Satank, as well as the Jensen house, and Farmer's welding shop. After some "horse trading" with George Stranahan, several acres were donated to create the Carbondale Community School and he began to move up from Denver, happy to be back near the land where he and his family spent summers camping on the Pabst family ranch.

Chas leaves behind two brothers, Mike and Hugh, one sister, Dorsey, three sisters-in-law, Ann, Jane, and Clara, twelve nieces and nephews, twenty-four grand nieces and nephews, countless cousins, and a full lifetime's worth of stories and love.

Click here for the full obituary.

David Cecil Perez was born July 12, 1954, and was a Denver native. Our Lord called him home on December 3, 2023, at the age of 69.

David was one of 12, born to Joe and Bessie Perez. In David’s childhood you could find him reading, listening to records, playing piano, doing outdoor activities and spending time with family and friends. David graduated from Colorado Rocky Mountain School and then graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a degree in Accounting. David was musically talented, he played, Piano, Guitar, Organ, and he enjoyed singing, enough to pursue these talents in New York City. He then went to Baltimore to stay with his family, where David then acquired his CPA license. In the early 90’s, David returned home, helping to care for his ailing parents. During this time, David was an avid cyclist, riding to and from work or simply just for pleasure, rain or shine.

Reintroduced to the Catholic Church, David devoted the next thirty years of his life to God, and with that spreading the knowledge he acquired of his faith to those surrounding him. David was an active member of his parish, driving others to Sunday's service, frequently leading the Rosary, ushering, assisting the choir, and cleaning and setting up events in the chapel.

David will always be immensely loved and dearly missed by those who were lucky enough to know him. He will be remembered for his beautiful smile, intelligent jokes, belly laugh, unique sense of fashion, wonderful music taste, culinary abilities, and the conversation he shared with all. Those around him found that David had a heart of gold. David could hold a conversation with anyone, and he savored every moment taken to connect with others. Through these deep and meaningful exchanges, his genuine heart was clear to everyone.

Not a day passed when he didn't pray for everything and everyone around him. Let's follow his lead and please include our beloved David in our daily prayers.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Joseph and Bessie Perez, his siblings, infant Josephine Perez, Rachel Ornelas, Vicky Perez, and Joseph Perez. He will be dearly missed by his surviving brothers and sisters; Manuel, Ricky, Thomas and Craig, Marie, Lorraine, Sherry and Julie, as well as, their spouses, and numerous nieces and nephews. A special thank you to the Caine's for making David apart of your family, Mike, Julie, Danny, Jessica, Aaron, Niles, and Kayce.

Visitation, Rosary and Mass will be held at Our Lady of the Snow in Wheat Ridge, CO on December 15, 2023. David will be laid to rest at Mount Olivet in Wheat Ridge, CO.

Please consider a Donation to the David C. Perez GoFundMe: Fundraiser by Niles Caine : David C Perez (gofundme.com)

We love you, David. You will be missed forever.

Click here for the full obituary.

Martha Rittenhouse Treichler died November 28 surrounded by her family at her home near Hammondsport. She was 94. She was born in February 1929 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Joseph Samuel Rittenhouse and Estelle Beahm Rittenhouse. She attended Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina, where she met her husband, Bill Treichler. They married in 1950 and moved to her husband's family farm in Troy Mills, Iowa. There, they designed and built their first home and farmed organically with her husband's family.

In 1966 Martha and Bill moved to Carbondale, Colorado to manage the farm at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School. In 1968 they moved to Vershire, Vermont to teach and run the farm program at the Mountain School. While teaching, Martha continued to study, earning her BA from Goddard College in 1973 and her MALS from Dartmouth College in 1974.

In 1975 Martha and Bill moved to a farm near Hammondsport, New York and began the process of rebuilding the old house, restoring the fields and becoming active in the community. Martha expanded her lifelong interest in healthy food, by becoming a Registered Dietician and consulting at local hospitals and nursing homes. She and Bill joined the Steuben County Historical Society where both volunteered for many years. Martha continued volunteering there until several months ago. They published a local history magazine, the Crooked Lake Review, from 1988 until Bill died in 2008.

Martha was inspired by her students, colleagues, and members of the many groups she belonged to including the Bath Peace and Justice Group, AAUW, the Hammondsport Women's Club and several writers' groups. In her free time she liked to garden, write poetry, take walks, bake bread and cook for her family. She loved to read, everything from pre-Colombian history and classic literature to mystery novels.

She is the author of eight books of poetry, as well as a book of local history, Stories of Mount Washington. Her last book of poetry, Still Marveling, was published by Foothills Publishing just days before her death.

She is predeceased by her husband of 58 years, Bill Treichler, and her siblings Julian, Kathryn, Patricia and Wilbur. She is survived by her brother David, her children: Rachel, Joseph, George (Lisa), Barbara Gregor (Eugene), and John; grandchildren: Dorothy Morris (Ryan), Elizabeth Rummler (William), William Treichler (Amy Wong), Charles Treichler (Joshua Jenkins), Alexander Gregor (Rebecca Hyde), Sonia Gregor Zorrilla (Martin), Hanna Gregor (Jordon Porto), and Frances Gregor; her great grandchildren: Charlotte, Jack and Cora Morris, George and Rose Rummler, Benjamin Treichler and Theodore Zorrilla; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.
She was a wonderful mother and friend, and we will greatly miss her curiosity, energy, insight and good humor.

The family is holding a memorial gathering on Saturday, January 13, from 2 to 4 pm at the Taylor Library, 21 William Street, in Hammondsport, NY.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Martha Treichler, please visit our floral store. To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Carolyn Rollins, born February 16, 1942 in Seattle, passed away peacefully at home after a prolonged fight with cancer on November 20, 2023. She spent the last months of her long life doing her considerable best to give strength and encouragement to her friends and family.

Sue was educated at The Bush School in Seattle, followed by a year in Australia, and finally at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado. She earned several nationally recognized financial designations in her third career as an independent financial consultant. Her first two careers, raising her two daughters and running a successful horse boarding, training, transporting operation along with a hay brokerage business, occupied the first half of her life. Following one of her passions - the one for all things equine, she devoted untold hours to teaching riding and horse management to a long line of students through the US Pony Club, guiding a number of riders to the highest levels of the club and becoming a nationally recognized horse management judge. She shared her musical talent by going into the elementary school classrooms in Dover during the Christmas season and playing accordion and singing carols with the students. Another interest, pursued with the same inexhaustible passion, was travel, whether across the state or the ocean, making fast friends and strengthening ties with family throughout the US, UK, and France, and renewing ties with family in Switzerland.

The only daughter of Benjamin and Carol Hager, Sue is survived by her husband of 26 years, Gene Young of Alton, NH, her brother and sister-in-law, John and Barbara Hager of Bremerton, Washington and their two sons; her daughters Kirsten Arvenitis (Christopher) of Aurora, Colorado and Sarah Rollins of Frederick Colorado; her five grand children, and numerous cousins across the country.

The family is planning to hold a memorial gathering, at a date to be determined. Rather than flowers or other gifts, the family asks that donations be made to one of her favorite charities, Gerry's Food Pantry in Rochester, which accepts contributions through Share Fund, or St. Jude's Hospital.

We've all lost a most kind, generous, and loving friend, wife, and mother.

With full hearts, we celebrate the life of Scott Bowie. Scott was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1949. After college, he set out to conquer all of Colorado’s 14ers. Upon arriving in Aspen, he stopped and never left. It’s where he met and married Betsy Thaete and began his career with Mollica and Associates — now the Aspen Appraisal Group — and strengthened his passion for the mountains and his community as a volunteer with Aspen Mountain Rescue. 

In 1982, he moved to Carbondale into a log home he and Betsy built together, raised two sons, and where — on the afternoon of May 9, 2023 — he passed away. Throughout his life, he loved playing golf, training dogs, researching the Civil War, and wearing his collar popped at every opportunity. He also always insisted on being early to everything, including death. Scott is survived by his wife Betsy, his sons Erik and Soren, and four grandchildren. In his memory, please consider donating to Compassion and Choices: www.compassionandchoices.org

June 26, 1942 - May 8, 2023

The lights went out for Bill Moore on May 8, 2023. A Denver resident for more than fifty years, as were his Denver mother (Eudorah Morse Moore) and grand-mother (Anna Reynolds Morse Garrey). Born in Los Angeles on June 26, 1942, to Eudorah and Anson Churchill Moore, his childhood was spent in Pasadena, California until attending the newly formed Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS) in Carbondale. It was a perfect match, toughening him and pushing him to grow physically and socially. After graduating he briefly attended Pasadena City College and then completed his undergraduate degree in business administration at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1964. Without a clear plan for the future, he joined the Peace Corps and worked with rural north Indian villagers to increase chicken egg-yields. Bill returned home at the height of the Vietnam War and was about to be drafted when a vision-related issue rendered him unable to serve. Still without a clear plan, he went on a six-week mountain-climbing expedition to Afghanistan and then worked as a cowboy on Bob and Ditty Perry's Mt. Sopris Hereford Ranch in Carbondale. During that year, he met Lorna Auguste Grindlay of Rochester, Minnesota. Lorna was working a summer faculty at CRMS while enrolled in PhD program in biological anthropology at the University of Michigan. She convinced Bill to pursue his longtime interests in geography by enrolling in a master's degree program in regional land- use planning there. Bill and Lorna married in July 1971, settled in Denver, raised two wonderful children and remained happily for nearly 52 years.

Bill spent his career working either for the state, local governments or engineering firms doing land-use planning. He had a special talent for resolving conflicts that arose, for example, when a project for laying fiber optic cable throughout the western US resulted encroached upon a rancher's field or a railroad right of way. Bill always found the way to meet each side's concerns, create peace, and accomplish the important goals. He was equally adept at resolving problems for his parents, siblings, children, nieces and nephews arising from divorce, work, etc. or those encountered by his wife while navigating her teaching and research career at the downtown and medical campuses of the University of Colorado Denver. With their two children, Bill and Lorna traveled the world, spending time in Peru, Tibet, and Bolivia where Lorna and her colleagues' research projects sought to identify the physiological and genetic mechanisms by which their multigenerational high-altitude residents were protected from hypoxic-related disorders afflicting newcomers as a means for identifying new therapies.
Bill was happiest in the mountains – at his family's longtime log cabin on Gold Creek above Ohio City, Colorado, while summiting Colorado's 150 highest peaks, taking long walks along alpine ridgelines, or skiing into back country huts every year (including 2023). He practiced yoga for over 25 years, wove beautiful baskets, and was a longtime volunteer for the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

In addition to his wife and two children, Anna Auguste and John Anson, their spouses David Biagioni and Emily (Gamble) Moore, Bill leaves behind four thriving grandchildren, Madalyn Eudorah and William August Biagioni, and Olin Anson and Juna Grindlay Moore; his three siblings, Anna Reynolds Moore, Anson Churchill Moore, and Reynolds Morse Moore, and their respective children/Bill's nieces and nephews - William and Matteo Valeri and spouses Manuela Zanaboni and Valentina Cirella; Carolyn and Sarah Moore; William, Henry, and Charlotte Ogden Moore; and great niece/nephew Isabella Eudorah and Julian Anson Moore.

Bill's life has been one of deep and quiet grace, loving service as his family's navigator, its rod and its staff, noble builder and keeper of the family flame. He will be profoundly missed by the many left behind who have been enriched by knowing him and benefiting from his many good deeds and kindest and most loving of hearts. A Memorial Service is planned at the First Unitarian Society of Denver in July (update to come). Memorial contributions may be sent in Bill's name to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad, or the charity of your choice.

November 23, 1931 - April 22, 2023

Barbara O'Neil Ross was born in 1931 in New York City to Viola (née Dotterer) and Henry Eli O'Neil. From Greenwich, CT, the family moved to St. Louis, MO, where Barbara attended the wonderful John Burroughs School, which nurtured her talent for art. She spent two years at Vassar College before transferring to Stanford University, graduating in 1953.

Barbara taught at all levels of primary and secondary education across three states: the Hamlin School in San Francisco, Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, and Collegiate School in New York City. During the 1960s, she developed her talent for black and white photography and drawing, illustrating two cookbooks written by her dear friend, Shirley Sarvis: Table for Two and Cooking Scandinavian.
In 1967 Barbara married John Ross, a gregarious Yankee with a passion for furniture-making and sailing. They lived in Cambridge, MA, for many years, where John taught high school, and Barbara was active in the Cambridge Art Association, participating in many juried exhibitions. At this time, Barbara's preferred medium was pastel, and she excelled at portraiture. Her artwork and photographs frequently featured people and places in Colorado, where John and Barbara spent summers living in the "Mod Lodge," a trailer set amid aspen trees and beaver dams. Visiting family and friends became well acquainted with Barbara's melodic "one, two, three," followed by a camera click.
Shortly after John died in 2002, Barbara moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she had old friends and made new ones at the Vi senior community in Palo Alto. Here she joined a singing group and was a leader in a vibrant community of talented artists. Barbara helped to organize art exhibitions, had several solo shows, and learned to use acrylics for the first time. She was honored with a very well-received retrospective of her own work. In 2020, she published the award-winning surreal art book, Fooling with Mother Nature (A Small Book with Big Ideas) in order to educate children about environmental concerns.

Barbara was predeceased by her parents, her husband, and her older sister, Patricia O'Neil Fender (Bill) and is survived by her sister Anne O'Neil Dauer (Art), nephews Willie Fender and Christopher Dauer, nieces Susan Handwerk and Lesley Dauer, step-children Edie Parker and Caleb Ross, and many loving step-grandchildren and grand nieces and nephews. Barbara was adored for her art projects with younger relatives, kindness, charm, whimsical imagination, and quirky sense of humor.

A celebration of Barbara's life will be held in the early summer.

October 20, 1960 - March 9, 2023

January 22, 1947 - February 23, 2023

It is with heavy hearts that the community bids adieu to Wick Moses, a fun-loving man who played a great role in the shaping of Carbondale’s culture.

Wick came to the Roaring Fork Valley in 1963 as a student at Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS). He came by train from Springfield, Massachusetts, with a head full of dreams, an electric guitar and amp and a Sony transistor AM radio. After graduating in 1966, Wick studied history at the University of Denver, got immersed in the hippie scene and discovered a love of FM radio and stereo sound systems.

“I am still wearing the CRMS school uniform — jeans, and a flannel shirt,” he joked during an interview with The Sopris Sun last year. “The summer of ‘67 was the last summer I spent back east and I never went back.”

He returned to CRMS to teach in 1970 and later opened a record store on Main Street which expanded to Aspen before closing in 1980. Wick and Pat Noel were the dual managers of KDNK when it first came on the air in April 1983. He later served on the station’s board of directors and was an avid supporter (leveling honest criticisms at times) for the past four decades.

Wick also performed at the very first Mountain Fair (Chautauqua) and was part of the fair’s early leadership and sound direction. “The thing about Mountain Fair was that it carried on that whole idea of a group of volunteers coming together to create something. That really was a big driving force in the town,” Moses told The Sopris Sun.

After Wick followed “love and money” back to Denver in 1988 and returned to the Valley in 1992, KDNK had moved its transmitter to Sunlight Peak and now had valley-wide coverage. In the ensuing years, he hosted a jazz show, sold underwriting and did production work and engineering for the station until his retirement in 2012.

As well as an audiophile, Wick was a motorcycle enthusiast and traveled the American West. He watched Carbondale grow and change along with new technologies and expressed gladness in 2022 at seeing young people continue to come to the area and be involved in creating community.

“One of the things I think about during the whole time I have been involved with Carbondale is that there was this incredibly fascinating cast of characters that came here. The place attracted some really unusual and unique people. For the most part, they were really good people.”

February 13, 1985 – January 28, 2023

It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Scott Tyrell Hutchins on January 28, 2023. Born February 13, 1985 in Meeker, Colorado to John and Diane Hutchins, Scott was just 37.

Scott is survived by his parents John and Diane Hutchins, his sister Skyler Hutchins, (Kevin Harris), grandparents, extended family, his loyal dog Juniper, and countless friends and colleagues who all love him.

Scott’s sense of humor, thirst for knowledge and passion for the outdoors could be felt by anyone who met him. He cared deeply about his family and friends; and his intelligence, thoughtful advice and sense of humor will be missed.

Most weekends, Scott could be found enjoying our public lands with his dog by his side. An avid hunter, paraglider, skier, fly fisherman, and hiker, he was often deep in the peaceful solitude of the Colorado mountains or desert southwest. Scott’s love for nature is a reminder to slow down and soak up the beauty of the world – this is how he curated an admirably large collection of natural artifacts that covered every shelf in his house.

Scott’s father inspired his love of the outdoors, going on countless fishing, hunting and backpacking trips together. His mother Diane supported his intrepid adventures and quest for knowledge. Scott’s sister will forever remember him as a loving brother, friend and skiing buddy.

A lifelong student, Scott graduated from Colorado Rocky Mountain School (‘03), Colorado College (‘07), and the University of Utah Law School (‘14). His calling was working with water in the west, protecting natural resources for generations to come.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, February 18, 2023 from 4-6pm at Orchard River View in Palisade. Should friends desire, contributions may be sent to either the Colorado Rocky Mountain School Scholarship fund or the Colorado Canyons Association in Scott’s memory.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.callahan-edfast.com for the Hutchins family.

September 23, 1962 - January 12, 2023

Marc Gilles Louis Grandbois was born in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec and grew up in Chatham, Ontario until he accompanied his parents on assignment to Kamsar, Guinea then Edea, Cameroon. These early experiences earned him an open view of the world and led to relationships that lasted through his life. He attended Colorado Rocky Mountain School outside of Carbondale for his senior year of high school, which only whet his appetite for the outdoors. After a year at the University of Montana in Missoula, he was drawn back to Carbondale and it remained his core community for the rest of his life. Gregarious, jovial, and kind, Marc was a well-loved figure in the community. With his ex-wife, Rebecca Young, he raised two sons — Michael, whose disability called for a special sort of parenthood — and William, both of whom he loved fiercely. He was a KDNK disc jockey from the station’s early days, hosting blues/rock show “Black and Blue” on Wednesday nights for many years. Even when he was off the air, he was a constant listener and frequent caller. He had an insatiable appetite for live music and was a regular at local performances. A self-proclaimed motorhead, he was known by many as a salesman at Bighorn and Berthod Motors, and later Napa Auto Parts. In his offhours, he spent a lot of time collecting and tinkering with bicycles, both for getting around himself and gifting to others. Marc lived in the present and never hesitated to share what little he had. A lifelong struggle with alcohol brought both challenges and new connections in his later years. He made many friends through Alcoholics Anonymous and The Retreat Recovery Center in Minnesota. He died in his Glenwood Springs home on Jan. 12 while trying to get back on the wagon. He was preceded in death by his father, Louis, and is survived by his sons, his mother Aline, and sister Chantal. The Brown Baggers AA group will host an open remembrance at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at First United Methodist Church in Glenwood Springs, and a broader celebration of life will be held at 1:30 p.m. April 2 at the Third Street Center in Carbondale. Donations can be made in his memory to KDNK Community Access Radio or A Way Out, Inc.

March 8, 1955 – October 25, 2022

Gale Vagneur Gates passed away on October 25th, after a six-month battle with cancer. She passed peacefully surrounded by family.

Gale was born March 8, 1955, to Geri and Clyde Vagneur in Aspen Valley Hospital. She was a force of nature—a caring mother, a devoted sister, and a dear friend to many over the course of her 67 years in Aspen and the Roaring Fork valley.

Gale loved all animals; she grew up riding horses, always had dogs and cats underfoot, and was an avid bird watcher her entire life. Gale was a passionate and active rafter, who ran rivers throughout the western U.S. with her siblings (sister Kit Brown, brother Ken Vagneur and his wife Sally Vagneur) and ex-husband, John Gates. She was a kind and devoted mother to her two sons, Emmo and Jesse, and loved to bake and cook for all her family and friends. Gale was fueled by her creativity and a lifelong appreciation for arts and crafts. She traveled the world and collected local art, which she cherished and displayed proudly for many years.

Gale’s family invites any who knew her to bring a memory of water to their minds, and find solace in contemplation of the following Navajo prayer:

In beauty I walk. With beauty before me I walk. With beauty behind me I walk. With beauty above me I walk. With beauty around me I walk. It has become beauty again.

Gale is survived by her sons, Emmo and Jesse Gates, her sister, Kit Brown, and her sister-in-law, Sally Vagneur. A celebration of life is planned for the coming summer.

November 4, 1991 - August 10, 2022

"Starfish and Coffee, Maple Syrup and Jam. Butterscotch Clouds, A Tangerine, and a Side Order of Ham. If You Set Your Mind Free Baby, Maybe You'd Understand..." -Prince (1987)

April 26, 1935 - Friday, May 27, 2022

You can read more about Lee Ann, her family, and their life in Carbondale and at CRMS in this Sopris Sun article, published in 2018.

December 17, 1942 - October 28, 2021

Jerry Lee Wooding, age 78 and longtime resident of Groton, passed away on Thursday, October 28, 2021, in rehab at Life Care Center of Acton. He was the loving husband of Sharon (Gilfillan) Wooding.

Born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania on December 17, 1942, a son to the late Park Emmit and Mary Emma (Moyer) Wooding, he grew up in McVeytown, where he became involved in Boy Scouts, especially camp counseling, and earned the rank of Eagle Scout before graduating from Rothrock High School in 1960. He met his future wife, Sharon, while working at a summer job at a lodge in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania while the two were students at Bucknell University. They were married in 1965 at St. John's Episcopal Church on Staten Island, New York.

Jerry's greatest joy was raising his family with Sharon on secondary boarding school campuses where the lives of all five family members, parents, and three children, were intertwined with every part of boarding school life - with Jerry teaching chemistry and leading outdoor trips,  Sharon editing school publications, and children exploring, fishing, skiing, and frequently accompanying Jerry on trips to the rainforests of Central America, the deserts of the American southwest, and the canoe routes of Canada.  In the year 2000, he was awarded a year's Sabbatical by his school, Lawrence Academy. He took that unique opportunity to explore on his own, taking a six-month solo bicycle trip across the entire United States and then spending five months living in Italy with Sharon where he became enamored of Italian art and architecture, a love affair that lasted the rest of his life.

Jerry relished his adventures but also treasured the simple things such as his weekly hike up Massachusetts' Mount Wachusett with his dogs, Casper and Biff, a routine that he kept up for years. He often said he would rather climb one mountain a hundred times than climb a hundred mountains one time.  Between his foreign adventures and his reliable Wachusett walks, he was able to do both.

In addition to his wife, Sharon, Jerry is survived by his children: Stephen Wooding and his wife Deborah Wiebe of Midpines, California,  Anson Wooding and his wife Fae (Ganiron) Wooding of Marlborough, Hilary Gregoire of Groton, and his granddaughter Emma Wooding of Midpines, California. Jerry is also survived by his sister, Jane, and her husband Philip "Ted" Brodie of Israel, and nine nieces and nephews.  In addition to his parents, Jerry is predeceased by his sister Lucy Miller, wife of Ken Miller of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

A memorial gathering will be held at McDonald Library at Lawrence Academy, on Saturday, November 20th  at 10 am.

Arrangements under the care of Badger Funeral Home,  Groton, Massachusetts,  www.badgerfuneral.com.

December 28, 1993 – September 14, 2021

Adam Evans Hobby left this earth due to a tragic accident while helping in the remodeling of his home in Denver. He was born and raised in the Roaring Fork and Crystal River valleys. He attended schools valley-wide and went on to pursue a business degree in Denver.

He was working in the business side of the ski industry but, due to the pandemic, he transitioned to the solar industry and was happily employed in Denver. Having been exposed to the off-grid lifestyle since birth, it seemed he had come full circle.

His two great loves were skiing and music. Learning to ski at Powder Pandas and continuing with Aspen Valley Ski Club, he developed his love of telemark skiing while attending Colorado Rocky Mountain School, becoming a beautiful and graceful skier. Music made his spirit soar and he would often drop into your day with texts of YouTube videos of his latest favorite artists, but he loved old ‘60s music as well. He was an accomplished guitarist, helping to form a school band winning a trophy at Battle of the Bands.

Adam was an old soul, a self-described “analog kid” preferring social interaction over social media.

He was an avid traveler and had many memorable adventures visiting family members and close friends. He was so proud to have held U.S., Australian and New Zealand citizenships, considering them all his home.

Adam is survived by his parents Dan and Judy Hobby of Carbondale; his Denver family: Christine and the late Eli Buzas, Melinda Buzas and Don Holt and children Thomas and Natalie, Matt and Sandy, Byron and Walker, Tony and Joseph; Australian family: his late nana Dulcie Evans, Mark and Maria Evans, Bruce Evans, Chris Evans, Jenine Evans, Bonnie (Evans) Johnston, Marnie and Liam Evans; and his extended Flood family in Northland, New Zealand, as well as numerous close family friends spread throughout the world. To his childhood, school and work mates, remember the shared experiences and especially the laughter with Adam.

Due to the pandemic, a family gathering will take place later at the spreading of his ashes.

So, let your spirit soar while skiing on a beautiful Colorado bluebird day and think of Adam smiling, making beautiful ballet-like turns on his ancient tele skis. Tune into soulful music every day, as he did, and perhaps share it with another. He would want that.

“The truth is — we never really lose the people we love. They are in the sunsets, and in the rain, and in the forests, and in laughter and music that takes your breath away. We never really lose their love, their beauty, because that energy doesn’t disappear — it finds new ways to reach you.” -Anonymous

August 13, 1937 - September 5, 2021

William E. Dumont (Bill), 84 years of Kirkland, Arizona, passed away in Prescott, Arizona on September 5, 2021. Born to William E. and Katharine Crocker Dumont in San Francisco, California on August 13, 1937.

William a rancher and owner of Rancho Santa Ynez, served in the US Navy, was a member of the Prescott Antique Auto Club, past president of the Yavapai County Cattle Growers and past president of the board of directors of the Heritage Park Zoo.

Preceded in death by his sisters, Ruth Warner Huking and Katharine Dumont Lord. Survived by his wife, Susan Dumont; his brother, Warren S. Warner (Betty) of Santa Barbara, CA and nieces and nephews. Sons and family of his heart, Ben Dilcher (Kelley) of Dewey, AZ; grandson, Tyler Dilcher; granddaughter, Shelby Dilcher (Jake McCarty) of Spring Valley, AZ; great-grandson, Stetson McCarty and Matthew Dilcher (Macie) of Pueblo, CO, and granddaughter, Quinley Dilcher.

Private service to be held.

July 7, 1994 - July 16, 2021

Shade Justice Sierra Gomez passed from this world into the Creator’s arms on July 16^th, 2021, after a lengthy illness.  Born on July 7^th, 1994, Shade had just turned 27 years old.  She will forever be remembered for her intelligence, wit, humor, and beauty.  She attended CRMS from 2008 to 2010. After graduation, she attended Fort Lewis College and then worked for the Jicarilla Apache Nation at their local radio station, KCIE, and was also a substitute teacher at the Dulce Independent Schools.

Shade was preceded in death by her mother Lisa Vigil Gomez and sister Rayne Gomez.  She is survived by her father Augustine Gomez, sister Skylar Gomez, and many extended family members, many of whom were also CRMS students.

The family requests donations in Shade’s name to any of the CRMS Native American Student Scholarship Funds. You can make your gift online here. You may also contact Heath Hignight (hhignight@crms.org), Director of Development to discuss your gift in Shade’s name.

Grandmother, former Scripps College dean of faculty, professor, lover of literature

Reprinted from the Aspen Daily News, May 22, 2021

Aspen Hall of Famer George Stranahan leaves far-reaching legacy

Nobody who knew George Stranahan will ever forget him — and for those in the Roaring Fork Valley who didn’t know him personally likely benefited, maybe unwittingly, from his presence, which will reverberate far longer than his 89 years of life.

The Aspen Hall of Famer died Thursday in Denver after decades living in Woody Creek. Neighbors can toast his name at the watering hole he established in 1980 that’s since become an area icon: the Woody Creek Tavern. Or, if not in the vicinity of where he called home, crack open a beer by Flying Dog Brewery and appreciate another of Stranahan’s contributions, as he founded the brewery alongside Richard McIntyre in 1990. Today, it’s the largest brewery in Maryland.

But those aren’t the only types of gathering spaces Stranahan leaves amidst his legacy — he was instrumental in making the Third Street Center in Carbondale a reality. Now, the converted elementary school serves as a community hub, housing more than three dozen nonprofits.

Third Street Center Executive Director Colin Laird recalls fondly the opening ceremony, at which Stranahan had the honor of ribbon-cutting duties.

“When we opened in 2010, we had a … grand opening — and he helped cut the ribbon. We all gathered in the round room and he told this story about climbing up a huge ladder to get to a diving board,” Laird said Friday. “And there’s all kinds of obstacles to get up there, and sometimes you slip and you have to go back up again. And you get to the very top, and you dive off, and the opening of Third Street was a splash. It was a neat way of putting into story form things we were all working on for three years.”

And the work didn’t stop after the building opened. Stranahan founded two more endeavors — MANAUS in 2005 and later Valley Settlement, which specifically works with the Roaring Fork Valley immigrant population to “help with the prospects of their lives,” according to the MANAUS website. Both of which were among the nonprofit entities headquartered at the Third Street Center, where Stranahan kept an office.

“He was always around, always trying to help different groups do good things,” Laird said. “He set a very high standard for all kinds of people who want to make the world better, and hopefully many of us can try to follow in his footsteps.”

Not that Stranahan actually had to work for a living. His Aspen Hall of Fame biography described the heir to the Champion Sparks Plug fortune as a “plain-spoken millionaire with a rebel agenda.”

The leaders of the organizations he leaves behind agree with that assessment.

“He just cared so deeply for so many things, and he was one of those incredible sources of both financial wealth and also empathy and ignition. He was not scared to light a fire under the right asses and just go for it,” said Sydney Schalit, MANAUS executive director.

Relatively speaking, Schalit’s relationship with Stranahan was short, as she only stepped into her role in April last year. Still, it didn’t take long for her to find a mentor and friend in Stranahan and his wife Patti.

“It was incredible,” Schalit said Friday. “Because there would be times I would be meeting with him and his absolutely glorious Patti, and we’d be talking about one subject, and he would just sort of veer off, and we would just go with him. But then it turned out he knew exactly where he was going, and in his way, he was just blowing it up so I would see it differently. He always had this really brilliant and cantankerous yet compassionate way of helping people.”

On Friday morning, all current and past “MANAUSers,” as Schalit called them, gathered to mourn the loss and celebrate everything Stranahan gave during his worldly time.

“We just heard some of the sweetest stories. He was such a deep and somewhat sporadic thinker, but he was always a systems mind. He had this ­incredible way of inspiring some and ­aggravating others, and it was actually a really, really useful tool in making social change happen — his capacity to be an instigator and be a real drive for justice and fairness and helping people see all the ways that we can make life better for others,” she said.

Above all, Stranahan — also a philanthropist, entrepreneur, physicist, writer, fine art photographer (his photos line the halls of Colorado Mountain College’s Isaacson School of Design), among other titles — was an educator, both formally and as a mentor to countless people.

After teaching at Michigan State University, Stranahan moved to the Roaring Fork Valley in the early 1970s, where he'd founded the Aspen Center for Physics a decade prior. Once a permanent resident, he then went on to found the Aspen Community School and Carbondale Community School. He also served on the boards of Colorado Rocky Mountain School, the Aspen Institute, CMC, the Aspen Community Foundation and Needmor Fund.

“I’m always struck — fairly regularly — that I learn of something that George was a part of that I didn’t know about. It happens all the time,” said Michael Hayes, executive director of Compass, which operates the Community Schools in Aspen and Carbondale. “He was a special and amazing human being who was a philanthropist and an educator to the core.”

May 18, 1936 - January 12, 2021

Sarah Parsons Sayre died on January 12, 2021, at home under Hospice care from a series of hemorrhagic strokes. Born in Providence, RI, on May 18, 1936, she was the daughter of the late Richard B. and Gertrude S. Parsons. Sally grew up in Hingham, MA. Sally graduated from Derby Academy in Hingham, followed by St. Mary's in the Mountains, now The White Mountain School, in Bethlehem, NH, and the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a BA degree in elementary education in 1960. Sally met her husband, Ford Kent Sayre, at CU in 1954, their Freshman year. They were married in Hingham, MA June 21, 1957, and recently celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary.

They began their life together in Colorado Springs, CO, where Ford was in the Mountain Troops at Ft. Carson and Camp Hale, CO. In the first twenty years of their marriage, the Sayre family moved about and had many adventures in Colorado, Kansas, Quebec, Canada, Wisconsin and finally, Rhode Island where they settled in 1979. Ford and Sally opened a recruiting firm specializing in computer skills and ran the business for thirty-five years, closing it in 2016 when Sally had her first stroke. Sally became the queen of placing Systems Programmers, the people who write computer code in its 0s and 1s form.

Sensitive and thoughtful, her focus was never on herself but on her family and everyone in her extended family. There was a calm beauty about Sally that drew people to her. Her house was always open, welcoming family and friends with a hot meal and a warm bed. An avid knitter, she loved to design and create items of beauty which she freely shared.

Sally is survived by her husband, Ford of Bristol, RI, and their children Ford K Sayre III, and his wife Amy, Las Vegas, NV; Erik M. Sayre and his wife Maura, Saunderstown, RI; Hannah Sayre Smith and her husband Daniel, Hingham, MA and Amy Sayre Schaefers and her husband Richard in Cloverdale, CA; eleven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren as well as many nieces and nephews around the globe that she treated like her children. Sally was the light of their lives and immensely proud of each of them, always interested in learning about what they are doing. Sally is also survived by her sisters, Carol Stuart of Ft Meyers, FL, and Hope Schmidt of Rotunda West, FL., brother Richard B. Parsons of South Bristol, ME. Sally is predeceased by her oldest sister, Louise Piattelli, of Florence, Italy.

As the pandemic has taken away the privilege of celebrating Sally's life with a memorial service, we will try to hold an outdoor gathering on her birthday for her many friends who wish to attend.

August 22, 1940 - January 1, 2021

Colorado Rocky Mountain School lost a great friend and supporter in Tony Cherin ‘58 when he passed on January 1, 2021. Tony served on the CRMS Alumni Board from 1990 to 1996 and as a CRMS Trustee from 1996 until his passing in early 2021. According to CRMS Director of Finance Joe White, Tony was “among the most generous champions of CRMS in the school's history.” Tony will be remembered for his kindness, generosity, sense of humor and dedication. 

As a teenager, Tony got into trouble in Washington DC and Boulder, Colorado, where they later moved. Family life wasn’t so easy and his self-esteem was low.  During those tumultuous teenage years, the Cherin family made the CRMS connection through a family friend, Doris Havice, whose son, Brad, was attending CRMS. Tony met with John Holden on the campus in Carbondale and afterwards, said to John, “Please let me come here.” Joining the CRMS community, Tony would later say did a significant amount to rebuild his self-esteem. “CRMS was very liberating and reinforcing. The community I formed there made me strong,” Tony said in 2015.

With that new-found strength and encouragement from Jack Snobble, one of his CRMS teachers and former fighter-pilot, Tony joined the Navy in 1963. Tony served in the Navy for 23 years, rising to the rank of Commander and seeing action in Vietnam. “At CRMS I learned how to climb, ski, and do all these things I had never experienced before. Later, when I was in Vietnam, I had plenty of exposure to dangerous situations and I was scared - but I had been scared before at CRMS and I drew upon that strength.”

After serving in the Navy, Tony earned his MBA and PhD in finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He then taught finance as a professor in the Business School at San Diego State University. That financial savvy would later help CRMS to navigate some challenging financial times. 

In 1990 he joined the Alumni Board and later became a member of the Board of Trustees in 1996. In 1999, Tony became the first CRMS alumni to serve as President of the Board of Trustees. “Tony was instrumental in establishing the CRMS endowment in the mid-1990s to provide financial support forever,” says Joe White. “Tony shepherded the schools’ finances through periods of challenge as well as strength.”

Not only did Tony help guide finances but also contributed generously, giving consistently to the CRMS Annual Fund and supporting three Capital Campaigns. In 2015, when asked why he continues to support CRMS so faithfully Tony responded, “You might not like the answer. It isn’t about the students - I don’t know any of the students. I am in love with the people who run the show. I want to make it happen for the troops on the ground of this school every day.” Tony always spoke highly of the CRMS faculty, staff, and board members and wanted to see the school succeed.

And yet Tony’s generosity went far beyond CRMS. Tony was a family man who loved his family dearly. He made friends easily and loved people. According to long-time companion Susan Larkin, “Tony had been very active in AA for 45 years and sponsored lots of people and helped them to make positive changes in their lives. He taught Financial Peace at Journey Church, again helping people make positive changes in their lives.” Tony believed in paying it forward and was full of fun-loving nature and kind words. Adds Susan Larkin, “Who wouldn’t want to be in a relationship with a man who cared so much about life and others?”

January 30, 1957 – December 30, 2020

The world is more dimly lit since Mark Stranahan, the middle child of George and Betsy Stranahan, left this place on December 30, 2020 at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a result of complications of septic necrotizing pancreatitis. He was 63.

Mark’s journey began in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 30, 1957. He grew up the third of five siblings. His father had a sixth child in a later marriage. Because of his father’s career as a physicist, the Stranahan family lived in West Lafayette, Indiana, and Okemos, Michigan, during the school year. As his father started the Aspen Center for Physics, summers were spent in Woody Creek.

As a young boy, Mark enjoyed reading, camping, campfires, hiking, fishing, time in the wilderness and building things. His first love came at the age of 12 in the shape of a Springer Spaniel named Stonewall. She lived until Mark was 23, and their connection was as deep and profound as a human-animal bond can be. They were constant companions and her portrait graces Mark’s home to this day.

Mark spent summers of his high school years working construction and for a period rode to work with his boss, Basalt-based architect Harry Teague, who became a role model and mentor.

Mark had a fondness for springtime desert camping and old Jeeps. After graduating from Colorado Rocky Mountain School in 1975, he took his Korean War-era ¾ ton Dodge M-43 Army ambulance, fitted with colossal Boeing 707 tires on a tour the West at 45 mph, ultimately enrolling at the University of Oregon. During this time of his life, he purchased a former turkey farm in Elmira, Oregon, and hatched great adventures and developed many lifelong friendships.

He left Oregon to finish his education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor while starting a family of his own with his new wife, Julie Fruehauf (now Mariouw). He earned both a B.S. degree in Architecture (1987) and M.S. in Architecture (with high distinction, 1998) from the University of Michigan.

Undoubtedly the most significant milestone of this time was becoming the father of Laine and Stephen, then known as Gus. Mark’s proudest accomplishments were his cherished children, and being a father was the role he most valued. When Laine and Gus were students at Emerson School, he became an enthusiastic advocate for progressive independent education.

In 2005, Mark married Karen Prochnow, a lifelong friend with whom he fathered Mason and Max, now middle school students at Summers-Knoll in Ann Arbor.

Mark’s heart was always west of the Mississippi, and he yearned to live west of the Continental Divide, but his education and then his children kept him in Michigan. While an undergraduate, Mark had the opportunity to work in China, which led to a lifelong friendship with visionary architect Richard Britz of Vashon Island, Washington. In the last decade of his life, Mark purchased a second home on Vashon Island and designed a Russian Stove decorated with Motawi tile. It is a work of art and energy efficiency. Mark advocated for sustainable design and green development, environmental responsibility and progressive education.

Mark created human-centered, beautiful spaces, whether renovating a home or designing a school layout. Later, while running his own home inspection business, his meticulous eye for detail, encyclopedic knowledge of structures and personal integrity made him highly respected.

He appreciated human-crafted beauty in the form of music, literature, art, craftsmanship and architecture. He was a guitarist, writer, photographer and visual artist. He flew airplanes, mountain-biked, skied and paddled canoes, always studying how to become more expert. Mark’s international travels took him to Mexico, Nepal, China, Italy, France, Australia and the Adriatic.

Mark loved cars and speed and won a regional formula Mazda championship in 1996. He was an inveterate learner and a deep thinker. His many and varied interests included pottery, machinery, natural history and leatherwork. He was extraordinarily well-read and enjoyed long conversations about diverse topics, including political and economic theory, art history, anthropology, sociology, systems theory and critical theory.

Mark was an autodidact and was never without a book or two on his person. There was never a topic of conversation to which he couldn’t lend some wit or thoughtful commentary. He was a good listener, a caring friend, had a wicked sense of humor and enjoyed practical jokes. Mark will be remembered by many for his helpfulness, kindness, generosity, friendship, curiosity and wisdom.

Mark’s remaining family is grieving the loss of this unique star from their family constellation. They include his four children, Elaine Fruehauf Stranahan (Laine), of Berlin, Germany; Stephen August Stranahan (Gus), of Garden City, Michigan; Mason Duane Stranahan and Maxwell Quinn Stranahan (Max) who reside with their mother, Karen Prochnow, in Ann Arbor. He is also survived by his partner, Gaia Swan of Detroit, Michigan, as well as his father, George and stepmother Patti, of Carbondale, Colorado; siblings Molly and her husband, Tom Curtin, of Tucson, Arizona; Patrick of Bozeman, Montana; Stuart and his wife Linda of Bainbridge Island, Washington; Brie of Nederland, Colorado; and Ben of Los Angeles, California; along with nieces Madison Stranahan of Bozeman, Rayna Miller of Lake Tahoe, California, and nephews Austin Stranahan of Santa Barbara, California; Taig Miller of Nederland, and Francisco Stranahan of Bainbridge Island. Mark was predeceased by his mother, Betsy Lamb Stranahan, of Ann Arbor in 1993.

Mark was a consummate volunteer, working passionately to elevate the causes he cared about including Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley in Ann Arbor. He served on the boards of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Summers-Knoll School and The Neutral Zone.

If you are drawn to make a contribution in his memory, Mark would have appreciated the support of organizations whose work was close to his heart.

An online memorial is planned for January 30, 2021, which would have been Mark’s 64th birthday. The family intends to host an in-person gathering when the pandemic allows, perhaps in Colorado during the summer, to continue to honor Mark’s life.

March 5, 1951 - December 18, 2020

John Robin Sutherland, the pony-tailed, cultured, and celebrated principal pianist for the San Francisco Symphony for more than four decades died at his home in San Francisco, California on Dec. 18, 2020, following a brief illness. He was 69.

Known for many years simply as Robin Sutherland (he legally changed his name to drop the “John”), he was born in Denver, Colorado, on March 5, 1951, and grew up in the nearby city of Greeley.

Early in his life, Sutherland was identified as a gifted pianist; by the age of four after, among other things, playing a two-handed “happy birthday” song on a toy piano for a toddler friend, according to a statement from his sister, Jean Huffman.

He went on as a youthful prodigy, groomed by Dr. Rita Hutcherson at the University of Northern Colorado while attending public schools in Greeley until his graduation in 1969. He then went for further musical training at the Juilliard School in New York City, though he left before graduating.

Sutherland lived in the Roaring Fork Valley in the early 1970s, attending the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale; Colorado Mountain College outside of Glenwood Springs; and ultimately, in 1972, enrolling at the prestigious San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

While an undergraduate student at the Conservatory, in 1973, he was called upon to fill in as a substitute pianist at the San Francisco Symphony.

At that performance and on a subsequent concert tour, according to a press release from the Symphony, Sutherland showed such remarkable abilities that, in 1974, Symphony Director Seiji Ozawa created a new position for him as principal keyboardist, which is the position he held for 45 years.

Sutherland liked to joke that his might be the most concise resume in the world since he has held only one job for his entire professional career.

He retired from the symphony at the start of the 2018-19 season, a departure celebrated by the declaration of Nov. 12, 2018, as Robin Sutherland Day by the City of San Francisco and heralded by a Symphony statement of his having been “a mainstay of the orchestra’s performances, taking prominent roles in everything from Bach to Stravinsky.”

After retiring, Sutherland continued to perform in more intimate venues, including a benefit concert for The Sopris Sun in August 2019, at the Redstone Castle, until being diagnosed with a brain tumor in the summer of 2020.

Following several months of ultimately unsuccessful treatments, under the care of a small team of family and friends, he succumbed to complications from the tumor.

He is survived by his spouse, Carlos “Lonchi” Ortega, who was born in Colombia; his sister, Jean and her husband, Steve Bojanowski of Greeley; numerous nephews, nieces, and other relatives, including members of the Ortega family in Colombia; and a broad collection of friends and fans around the U.S. and the wider world.

Those wishing to learn more about the life and career of Robin Sutherland can check the websites of the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Greeley Tribune, and The Sopris Sun for articles and obituaries.

Click here to read the SF Chronicle Tribute

April 29, 1925- October 27, 2020

Wes Horner passed away in Bozeman, Montana on October 27. He was 95. 

Wes grew up in Roanoke in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and spent his summers on the family cotton farm in Georgia. After overcoming polio as a child, he lived by the motto, “When you have your health, you have everything.” After his recovery, he became an accomplished rock climber, and he loved hiking, bicycling and cross-country skiing. He was very disciplined, stretched every morning, and remained extremely active throughout his life.

Wes was a Naval officer in World War II, and then got his master’s degree in Geology from C.U. Boulder where he was also a mountain guide for the Recreation Department. Wes worked as a geologist for a few years before becoming a high school science teacher. His teaching jobs took his family from the Fountain Valley School near Colorado Springs, to the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, to The International School of Brussels, to Santa Fe Preparatory School in New Mexico, along with other places.

Wes taught Chemistry and Physics at CRMS in the 1960s. He also set up and taught the school’s first blacksmithing program as an evening activity, led many student camping trips, and had a wonderful lifelong community of friends among the faculty and students.

Wes instilled a love of the outdoors and creativity in his three daughters. He was very inventive and loved working with his hands. Whether he was splitting wood, blacksmithing, building furniture, or playing his harmonica, he was bold and delightfully childlike in his approach. He wasn’t afraid of making mistakes or looking foolish- he knew that it was all part of the learning process.    

Wes had a very active mind and studied Zen Buddhism. He loved to read- especially anything to do with science. He had zero tolerance for ignorance, cheating or laziness and was fiercely protective of the environment. Wes loved the finer things in life like great food and wine, beautiful scenery, and stimulating conversations with friends. Wes believed that we should make the most of our lives for the short time that we are here.   

Wes was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Virginia Vance (V.V.) Horner. Wes is survived by his five grandchildren, one great grandson, three son-in-laws, two grandson-in-laws, and his three daughters- Cindy Kahn of Santa Fe, NM, Sally O’Neill of Bozeman, MT, and Pam Porter of Carbondale, CO.

Wes will be remembered for his strength, honesty, creativity, courage, humor, kindness and his great love of rocks and the mountains. There will be a memorial service next summer in Carbondale, Colorado. Wes loved Canyonlands and donations in his memory may be made to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. 

June 4, 1997 - August 27, 2020

Junki Yamakawa, a 23-year-old student at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT, passed away on August 27, 2020 in Missoula, MT as a result of an accidental collision and head injury.

Junki is survived by his parents, Go and Emi Yamakawa, and his two older brothers, Kento and Yu Yamakawa all of Kyoto Japan.

Junki’s shining personality, his gentle smile and humor, his mastery of drums and keyboards and his loyalty as a friend and loving son will truly be missed by all who knew him.

Junki Yamakawa was born June 4, 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. As a child, his family affectionately called him JunJun. Growing up, Junki loved ice cream, liked to play video games and as many people do, he loved hotsprings.

He began to play music on the keyboards at age 3. His family are all musicians and so he grew up playing music all the time. He also was an excellent golfer and won many tournaments as a child and teen. J

unki’s father studied in high school and college in the USA, so he asked Junki if he wanted to come here. He said yes, and at age 17, Junki moved to Carbondale, Colorado, where he entered school as a sophomore at Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS).

He barely knew any English when he moved to Colorado, but despite that fact, he made many good friends even in the beginning. At CRMS he began mountain biking, climbing and skiing. He particularly liked one of the art offerings at CRMS, blacksmithing. He was a well-loved drummer and keyboardist in the music program, and had many amazing performances on the stage in the CRMS Barn, both solo and with various bands.

As a senior, Junki traveled with Robin Greenfield to London for their senior project, where they did an internship in a music recording studio. In 2017 he graduated from CRMS and began college that fall at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. He and Robin became freshman roommates in Roskie Hall and Junki began his studies in Mechanical Engineering. He achieved a scholarship at MSU and he was known to be “wicked smart.” Junki continued to play music and enjoy outdoor sports as a college student.

The house that he shared with Robin and Mitchell Burger was full of musical instruments, speakers and sound equipment. Jam sessions with his roommates and his large network of friends happened just about every day. He worked in the Office of International Programs at MSU 2019-2020 and also did gardening work with his friend Ty Moulton. Junki, with his positive outlook on life, his smile, and his genuine love for the people around him, will be deeply missed.

A service for friends and family will be held at 4:00 P.M. (Mountain Time) on Thursday September 3, 2020, at Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service in Bozeman, MT. Doors open at 3:30 P.M. T

he service will also be live streamed at the link included on this page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_EtLpGEFR4

November 5, 1935 - July 18, 2020

Our beloved Ken Hause passed away peacefully on July 18, 2020 at 12:32 pm at the age of eighty-five. He lived a bold and beautiful life as an artist, an adventurer, a teacher, a family man, and as a wise old friend. He taught high school math, world religion and humanities at both the Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS) and Albuquerque Academy for several decades. He loved being a teacher and our minds have been made more curious by his thoughts. He loved his students (and we were all his students). If you asked him about his greatest accomplishment, it was always an anecdote on how he helped make a single student become a better person through his teaching. Art was also his greatest passion and our imaginations have been illuminated by his museum full of wood carvings, totems, statues, altars and paintings. Since he retired, he has spent most of his time with a paint brush doing plein air watercolor. He painted the world as he saw it with big blue skies and soft gentle horizons. Today he settled into that horizon as gentle as the last stroke of his brush and invites us, as any good teacher would, to look a bit further but, do so, with passion and grace.
- Eric Hause

It's hard to encapsulate Ken, because he was seemingly larger than life, physically, mentally, and spiritually. He was forever sharing observations and ideas as if he had just discovered them, and was excited to pass them on to others, whether a friend, a student, or a large group. And Ken's ideas and observations always seemed to be grounded in the very heart of things, and also to suggest how to live more fully, more openly, more fundamentally. Ken faced life with curiosity and courage and originality, qualities I'm sure he practiced to the end. I know he will be missed across many time zones, by many whose lives he enriched.
- Dutton Foster

May 1, 1943 – July 4, 2020

Rosamond Turnbull died peacefully at her home in Carbondale, CO on Saturday July 4th, 2020. She was 77. Roz was born on May 1, 1943 in Glenwood Springs, CO. She is a descendent of both the Brown and Perry families who have deep historical roots in Colorado. Her maternal grandfather, DRC Brown, was one of the original pioneers who helped establish the town of Aspen, CO and her paternal grandmother, Rosamond Underwood Perry (for whom she was named), was a Smith College graduate who came west as a schoolteacher at the Elkhead Schoolhouse near Hayden, CO. Her parents, Robert Perry and Ruth Brown Perry, were lifelong residents of the Roaring Fork Valley and stalwarts of the local ranching community. Roz attended CRMS and graduated from Colorado College in 1965. A year later she married Thomas R. Turnbull (Tom) and together they started their life of ranching and raising a family. They spent over 50 years devoted to raising cattle and caring for the land, as well as becoming an integral part of the fabric of the local community. Roz was a lovely person who touched many hearts. Her warmth and kindness enriched the lives of both family and friends. She was a constant source of love and encouragement and always strived to find the best in people and the positive in life. She enjoyed gardening, reading, drawing, and was an exceptional cook. Many people enjoyed sitting at her table near an old cookstove, savoring a delicious meal and thoughtful conversation. She naturally drew people together with her inclusive and accepting nature. She is survived by her husband, Tom and her four children: Catherine (Katie), Thomas M (Mat) and Pamela, Amy Turnbull and Finlay Anderson, Timothy (Tim) and Madeleine, as well as 8 wonderful grandchildren: Emily Barron, Duncan, Bruce, and MacAlister Turnbull, Lewis and Perrin Anderson, and Emma and Elizabeth (Ellie) Turnbull. A private memorial and burial service will be held for immediate family. In lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of Roz can be sent to HomeCare & Hospice of the Valley (www.hchotv.org) or NW Youth for Christ (www.nwcyfc.org).

November 17, 1955 - June 15th, 2020

Susanna Block was a life force. Born into a big Seattle family with four older brothers and eventually a younger sister, she always blazed her own trail. A trail that took her into the Cascades, the Rockies, Boston, Boulder, Nepal, Mexico, Alaska, Africa, and much of the world.

Susanna was a deeply devoted friend who, even with her famously stubborn streak, was always there for anyone needing help, support, love, or a good meal. Having lost her mother, Dorothy Wolens, at the age of five, Susanna adopted a strong self-reliance. While attending Colorado Rocky Mountain School---a boarding school in Carbondale she discovered a tribe of lifelong friends and a passion for exploring the west on long school camping trips. Susanna initially attended Emerson College in the heart of Boston---a disaster for a woman whose heart and soul were in the out-of-doors. She quickly transferred to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she was back home.

Susanna met her future and former husband, Perry Conway, during a summer working in an outdoor/nature program in Manhattan, Kansas. Perry, aka The Bird Man, moved to Colorado with his many animals in tow (an eagle, owl, raccoons, prairie dogs, snakes, and Leroy the alligator.) After earning a degree in Anthropology, Susanna soon became a road warrior, traveling to art fairs throughout the country to sell Perry’s impressive nature and wildlife photographs. She would pack everything into her small pickup and be gone for weeks at a time. After her children Matt and Dana were born, she brought them along on her adventures.

Later, Susanna spent a decade running a café in the Boulder Public Library, Espress-Oh!, where she became a local fixture. Susanna’s warm, outgoing nature made her everybody’s pal. She went on to open The Dairy, a bar/café in The Boulder Performing Arts Center, with her dear friend and longtime roommate Julia Wrapp. After several years, Susanna had had enough of the hard work of the food service business. She then did stints working for the Boulder County DA and in a mortgage office.

Over 20 years ago, Susanna was diagnosed with breast cancer---something she found more of an inconvenience than a serious obstacle to living a full life. She continued to travel and explore---including an extended trek in Nepal and a later trip to Ecuador with Matt to join Dana, who had moved there for over a year to volunteer with a community outside of Quito. She developed a passion for fly fishing, which she continued throughout the rest of her life. Eventually, Susanna discovered what would become her favorite, magical place---Holbox Island, on the far northeast corner of Mexico. On this picturesque little island, Sus became fast friends with the locals. She frequently returned, including an epic 60th birthday with her kids and siblings.

Even after her cancer metastasized, Susanna carried on valiantly for over a decade with stage-four cancer. She hated pink ribbons and survivor rhetoric---“I am not a survivor, I am a Warrior!” she’d proudly announce. Susanna moved from Boulder to Denver six years ago, in large part to be closer to her two kids. Once she arrived in her new community of Five Points, Susanna created a neighborhood summer block party devoting tireless hours helping with food, music and organization to make it a huge success every summer. Susanna’s annual Hanukkah party was another joyous tradition she took great pleasure in which included Dana and Matt’s closest friends. She loved watching Dana’s remarkable hard work and success as she became a dental hygienist and entrepreneur---and Matt’s impressive sales chops in business with a focus on real estate. Dana’s wedding to Dustin Schmitt three years ago was a magical moment and a true highlight of her life.

In late 2018, on a trip to rural Baja, she met Shaman Saul. Susanna embraced this special spiritual relationship, developing a profound connection with Saul. Saul sent her sage and incense that remained at her bedside throughout her final weeks. Susanna was focused not only on living a full life but also having a great end of life. Her wish was granted these final weeks thanks to the inspiring dedication and compassion of Matt and Dana and with a special shout-out to her remarkable hospice nurse Jennifer. Susanna was in her home, surrounded by love and her dear alley cat Sox. If there was ever a beautiful death, Susanna experienced it when she passed away peacefully and painlessly Monday morning, June 15.

Susanna is survived by her son Matthew Brooks Conway, her daughter, Dana Mara Conway (husband Dustin Richard Schmitt) and her siblings: Jonathan Wolens, Daniel Jackson, Kenan Samuel, Mary Judith, and step-siblings: Tamara April, Christina Lynn, Melinda Mary, and Newton Edward Moats. She was preceded in death by her brother Adam Parker, her parents, Robert Jackson and Dorothy Wolens, and step-mother Mary Lou Moats.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to a www.indifly.org: This remarkable nonprofit empowers indigenous communities to own and operate fly fishing ecotourism businesses.

Born March 30, 1944

February 16, 1964 - May 2, 2020

Dear Jennifer:

Now that you have finished your brave fight against ovarian cancer and left us only the memory of 56 years of your life, we tearfully must say goodbye.

You started life fighting to breathe in a hospital incubator and ended it fighting to hold on to life in a hospital bed at home. As in everything you did, you did it your way and refused to fall in line with the accepted procedure or conventional expectations.

You were one of those rare individuals who loved and took the time to fully appreciate the wonders of nature. Watching the moon rise and hiking in the forest as nature displayed the beauties of every season were, for you, a constant joy.

You loved animals, especially your dogs, Jasmine, Chelsea, and Chelsea’s puppies, Simba and Nala. The two of us together, with our dogs, enjoyed many years of wonderful outings talking about the ups and downs of our brief lives.

And you were a wonderful and incredibly gifted musician. The conventional musical world was yours for the asking. You were a teenage prodigy on the clarinet and had the good fortune to study with the first-chair clarinet players of the Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Denver orchestras.

However, alas, you fell in love with Rock and Roll and switched to alto and tenor saxophones, playing in local groups. You also had a very nice voice and played guitar and piano quite well.

You were an excellent double-diamond skier and ski instructor at Snowmass and later at Sunlight. Contrary to expectations, you recovered enough, after your first chemotherapy and unconventional non-western medicine treatment, to teach the entire 2018-2019 season at Sunlight without missing a day, and you were named “employee of the year.”

Your courage and determination to remain positive and enjoy what was left of your life during the last eight months of your life spent in bed showed incredible courage and strength of character.

You will be missed by your sister, Wendy Ann Boland, your brother-in-law, James Andrew Roman, your nephew, Paul Clay Roman, your niece, Briana Jaye Boland, and your fellow impractical musician, philosophical hiking companion, and loving father, Clay Boland Jr.

November 18, 1951 - April 10, 2020

• March 13, 1933 - March 11, 2020
  
  Edward “Ned” Searles Rowland died peacefully on March 11, 2020, just two days shy of his 87th birthday.Born in 1933 in Cambridge to the late Benjamin Allen Rowland and Sara Briggs Rowland Bolton, he grew up on the Searles estate “Pine Lodge” in Methuen.Ned attended Phillips Andover Academy and graduated from Brown University in 1954.

  After serving in the army for two years, Ned moved to Carbondale, Colo., where he taught at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School.

  A year later, Ned returned to Boston to join Estabrook and Company, which would begin a career in the investment business that spanned six decades.

  Ned is survived by his wife of 61 years, Susie, and children Stephen and his wife, Frances, of Westport, Conn.; Julie and her husband, Eric Breitenberger, of Fairbanks, Alaska; daughter-in-law Peggy Rowland; and five grandchildren: Ned, Molly, Sally, Charlotte, and Stephen Jr.

  Ned was predeceased by his beloved eldest son, Edward Searles Rowland Jr., in 2014.

  Ned is also survived by brother Daniel B. Rowland of Lexington, Ky., and sister Mary Allen Swedlund of Deerfield; and half-brother Rodney D. Rowland of New Castle, N.H.

  He was predeceased by brother Benjamin Allen (Barry) Rowland Jr. of Marblehead and brother George B. (Robin) Rowland of Escondido, Calif.

  Ned was an avid sailor and spent nearly all his summers on Cape Cod in Osterville.

  A member of the Wianno Yacht Club and former commodore, Ned would later become a member of the Cruising Club of America, where he would serve as commodore from 2005 to 2007.

  In 1971, Ned joined the board of trustees at The Pingree School in Hamilton, and later became chairman.

  A staunch supporter of the ice hockey team, Ned was inducted into Pingree’s Athletic Hall of Fame in his capacity as a big fan.

  A memorial service is being planned for the summer of 2020. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Ned’s memory to The Pingree School, 537 Highland Street, South Hamilton, MA 10982.

March 9, 1926 - February 17, 2020

Barbara Frances Morris Snobble, worldwide traveler, devoted teacher, avid jazz fan, and much-loved mother and grandmother, died Feb. 17, 2020, in Niceville, Florida. She was 93.

Barbara was born March 9, 1926, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Robert H. and Marie Morris. She grew up in Highland Park, Illinois and spent childhood summers on the farm in Kansas. She graduated from Vassar College, New York, in June 1946, where she studied history, Greek and Russian. She married John “Jack” Snobble (in ski gear!) on March 27, 1947, in Aspen, Colorado. They lived in Europe, Washington, D.C., and Colorado, where they raised four daughters and were married nearly 50 years. Jack Snobble died in 1996.

Barbara spent childhood summers on a farm, and later raised ducks and peacocks. She also loved Benny Goodman and Coleman Hawkins; as a teen she snuck into Chicago jazz clubs and danced to Big Bands with friends. Barbara was a dedicated student of history; at 18, she joined the Daughters of the American Revolution and remained an active member most of her life. She was also a founding member of the Roaring Fork chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society and traveled extensively in the 4 Corners area.

She taught Latin, comparative religion and history at Colorado Rocky Mountain School from 1955 to 1969. She and Jack Snobble instigated Spring Trip at CRMS. The first week in May the Whole school explored the 4 Corners area of the Southwest with their car leading the way. In 1971 she began teaching Nature Writers at Colorado Mountain College until 1984, when she became the librarian at Gordon Cooper Library in Carbondale, Colorado. She retired from the library in 1992 or so.

Barbara loved to travel. After she and Jack married, they spent three years living in and traveling through Europe. While there, she began collecting dolls, a hobby she continued most of her life. During the summer of 1965, she traveled through Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey; every two weeks, she sent home boxes of dolls to her children. Later, she visited Syria and Egypt and led a six-week study tour through Yucatan in 1974. In 1987, she traveled to China, her lifelong dream.

Barbara enjoyed the theater and performed with the Carbondale Light Opera Company in the 1970s and 1980s. She also loved to read, garden, and collect souvenirs from her travels. She became engaged to Richard “Dick” Allenby in 2003, a childhood friend of hers and college roommate of Jack Snobble. After living for decades in Carbondale, Colorado she and Dick moved to Florida to be closer to her daughter, Cristi. He died in 2017 in Florida.

Barbara is survived by her four daughters, Cori Snobble and John Montgomery, Casi and Kerry Miller, Conne and Jim Bazley, and Cristi and Tim Perry. Dick Allenby’s sons Braden and Carolyn Allenby, Kent and Patrice Allenby, and Peter and Julie Allenby. She had seven grandchildren and their spouses and eight great-grandchildren.

June 22, 1967 - February 17, 2020

Charles Martin Leake passed away on February 17, 2020, as a result of a hit and run automobile accident in Denver, Colorado. Born in San Antonio, Texas, on June 22, 1967, he never knew a stranger-his contagious smile and intense love for family and friends will be remembered forever. He loved the outdoors; and as a boy he enjoyed many happy times at Leakewood, a family vacation home in Rockport, Texas, where fishing, crabbing, and sailing were perfect fits for his fun-loving, adventuresome spirit. He attended Alamo Heights High School, graduated from the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado, and earned his BA degree at Western State University in Gunnison, Colorado. He was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, worked in the mortgage industry, and established several start-up businesses. The mountains and streams of Colorado provided an ideal setting for an active life well-lived, a place where he mixed work with the fun of fly-fishing, skiing, and golf. He was happiest when spending time with his fifteen-year-old son, teaching him to hunt and fish in Colorado and Texas, sharing both nature and nurture with "Little Charlie." He is survived by his son, Charles Leake Hayworth; brother Clint M. Leake (Maria); sister Margaret Leake Gunn (Sean); nephew, Curtis Mason Gunn; niece, Ella Grace Gunn; and aunt, Mary Margaret Mueller, all of San Antonio; and by legions of wonderful friends. His parents, Clint Murchison Leake and Priscilla Mueller Atherton, preceded him in death.

The family would like to thank the Reverend Beth Knowlton of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Debbie Chesney, Porter Loring, and countless other friends and family members who have provided support during this difficult time. For those wishing to make memorial contributions, the family suggests The First Tee of San Antonio, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, or a charity of choice.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 4:00 PM at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 315 East Pecan Street, San Antonio, Texas, 78205.

You are invited to sign
the Guestbook at
www.porterloring.com
Arrangements with
PORTER LORING MORTUARY
1101 MCCULLOUGH AVENUE
SAN ANTONIO, TX 78212 - (210) 227-8221

May 23, 1950-January 15, 2020

On Wednesday, January 15, 2020, Theodore (Ted) Roosevelt Williams, Jr., 69, of Atlanta, GA, joined His Savior, Jesus Christ, in Eternal Life. Ted was born on May 23, 1950, in Tampa, FL, to the late Mr. & Mrs. Theodore R. (Ruther Lee) Williams, Sr.

A life-long learner, Ted continued his formal educational pursuits at Georgia State University, M.S. Management, 1984 and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, M.S. Civil Engineering, 1973 after graduating from Haverford College, B. S. Engineering in 1972. Ted attended prep school, Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, CO, and graduated in May 1968.

Ted was a competitor. During college, he played football and rugby. He also enjoyed rock climbing – that’s no surprise since the qualities of successful climbing are patience, discipline, determination, problem-solving, and perseverance; all qualities he possessed.

Ted was an accomplished executive in transit management and operations, transportation planning, and interagency coordination at the local, state, regional, and national levels. During Ted’s 18-year tenure at MARTA, he served in several leadership roles, including Assistant General Manager, Rail Services, and Police Services. To him, an equally important role was mentor. One of his mentees said, “I honestly don’t think I had a better example of a real man.” As an entrepreneur, Ted co-founded a successful transportation consulting practice; DW & Associates has served major transportation agencies and governmental entities for the past 19 years.

A true Renaissance Man, Ted loved several things: his wife; vacationing in tropical islands; gardening; reading; sports (all of them); TV, and movies. He had a passion for life, family, and community. Ted was an expert at deep thinking and at challenging others’ thinking. No one escaped his questioning or his stare when he did not understand what was being said.

Ted leaves to cherish his memory, his life partner and loving wife, Joetta Thomas; brothers – John A. (Charlene) Robinson, Eugene (Margot) Williams and James E. Williams; brothers-in-law –James E. (Tina) Thomas, Ronald Thomas, and Marcus J. Thomas; and sisters-in-law – Dr. Emma M. Thomas, Sylvia T. Gilbert and Cheryl Thomas, survive him, as well. His sisters, Sylvia L. Pugh, and Rhudine Williams preceded his transition. Also, he leaves a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and his Impact Church Family to celebrate his extraordinary life.

Donations may be made in Ted’s honor to College Orientation Workshop, Inc., PO Box 1047, Lexington, VA 24450  www.cow4life.org

September 6, 1937 — September 13, 2019

SCARBOROUGH – Lewis P. Cabot, collector, businessman and manufacturing executive, died on Friday, September 13th in Scarborough, Maine. He was 82. The cause of death was complications from diabetes. He was a resident of Bonita Springs, Fla. and a former resident of Harpswell, Maine and Boston, Mass.

Mr. Cabot was passionate about art and sculpture and an avid collector. He was an important supporter of artists, with a particular interest in Color Field Painting and modernist constructed sculpture. He was a founding trustee of Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, New York, where he introduced founder Ralph Ogden to the work of sculptor David Smith and encouraged Ogden to acquire seven prominent Smith sculptures for the collection, and a proponent of contemporary art in Boston during the 1960s. He was a trustee of several art museums, including Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts from 1966 to 1990. He advocated for the creation of a department of contemporary art at the MFA, which was a controversial position in Boston at the time. His circle included critics and curators such as Clement Greenberg, Kenworth Moffett, Michael Fried, Charles Millard, Karen Wilkin, and André Emmerich. He enjoyed lifelong friendships with many artists and fellow collectors, including Sir Anthony Caro, Tim Scott, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Helen Frankenthaler, Darryl Hughto, Susan Roth, Ruud Kuijer, James Wolfe, J. Welles Henderson, and David Mirvish.

Mr. Cabot was born in The Hague, The Netherlands on Sept. 6, 1937, where his father, a diplomat, was stationed at the American Embassy. He grew up in Washington, D.C., Manchester, Mass. and wherever his parents happened to be posted, including Finland, Sweden, Colombia, Brazil and Poland. He was educated at the Groton School (Class of 1956), Harvard College (Class of 1961) and Harvard Business School (Class of 1964). He had fond recollections of a post-graduate year spent at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colo., where he fell in love with skiing.

Mr. Cabot purchased the Southworth Machine Company of Portland, Maine, in 1977. Over the course of the next three decades he transformed a New England producer of papermill systems into an international leader in the material handling industry. He served as Chairman of the Board of Southworth International Group from 1977 to 2011. In addition, he served as a director of the Material Handling Institute Roundtable from 1988 to 2007. In 2017 he was awarded the Norman L. Cahners Industry Award for lifetime contributions to the material handling industry. He brought an art connoisseur’s eye to manufacturing, insisting that his products be finished in a myriad of bright colors and decorating his offices with collages and sculptures created out of discarded machine shop molds. Customers would occasionally call to express curiosity when they received industrial equipment painted in bright shades of yellow, pink, and purple.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Cabot had been active in the investment business in Boston, completing a traineeship at F.S. Moseley & Co., and then working at John P. Chase, Inc., and Gardner & Preston Moss. He was a trustee of the Northeast Pooled Common Fund of Princeton, N.J. from 1972 to 1994.

Outside of business, Mr. Cabot served as a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the Museum of American Folk Art (New York), the Portland (Maine) Museum of Art, Storm King Art Center, the Maine College of Art, the Society of Arts and Crafts of Boston, the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, the Maine Maritime Museum and the Maine State Music Theater. He was a member of the visiting committee of the Harvard University Art Museum from 1982 to 1988.

In addition to art, Mr. Cabot greatly enjoyed architecture and participated in the design and construction of several innovative houses during the course of his life. Later in his life he created a state of the art sculpture workshop at his home in Harpswell, where he invited both established and aspiring artists to stay and work. He was also a dedicated collector of art books and catalogues, walking sticks, ship models and other maritime objects and historic postcards of Maine. He traveled extensively, both across the United States and internationally, and lived outside of London for a period of time in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was fond of jazz, gin and tonics, chocolate, humorous stories and good-natured practical jokes.

Mr. Cabot was an avid sailor. He owned several yachts, including a Nauticat 50 named ELEDTIJA and an East Bay 42 named SUNFEAST after a favorite Caro sculpture. He cruised often, both along the New England coastline and in Florida and the Caribbean. He was a member of the New York Yacht Club and a former member of the Portland (Maine) Yacht Club and Manchester (Massachusetts) Yacht Club. In addition, he was a member of the Somerset Club of Boston and the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D.C.

Mr. Cabot was a grandson of Godfrey Lowell Cabot, chemist and founder of the Cabot Corporation and a son of John Moors Cabot, career diplomat, ambassador to five countries and Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs in the Eisenhower Administration. His mother was the former Elizabeth Lewis.

He is survived by his wife Susan Knight Cabot, whom he married July 15, 1978 in Manchester, Mass.; his daughter Elizabeth L. Cabot, and by his sons Edward O. Cabot, Timothy P. Cabot, James E. Cabot and Alexander L. Cabot; nine grandchildren; and his brother John G.L. Cabot and sister Elizabeth Cabot Lyman. He is survived as well by his first wife Judith Ogden Thomson. He was predeceased by his sister Marjorie Cabot.

Sharon Rudd was born to Paul and Gladys Hodge Walker on March 13, 1943. She grew up in Great Falls, Montana and graduated from Great Falls High School in 1960 with honors. She ranked third out of her class of 450 students. Sharon obtained a full work scholarship from Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, where she majored in English literature, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. She met her husband Bob Rudd when she modeled for one of his drawing classes.

After graduating from Carleton, Sharon taught English for one year from 1964 to 1965. Bob and Sharon were married on August 8, 1965. They honeymooned in Glacier National Park, the Wind River Mountains, and Jackson Hole. While Bob finished graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, Sharon taught at Abbington Friends Quaker School, where she loved the learning environment. Moving to Carbondale, Colorado, Sharon again taught English as well as comparative religion at Colorado Rocky Mountain School. In an evening student activity Sharon learned the basics of silversmithing from an elderly Australian, Steve Shanser. This was ultimately to lead to a career in jewelry making for Sharon.

After teaching three years, Bob and Sharon moved to Jackson Hole where they bought a rundown log cabin on a 50 foot by 150 foot lot for $14,000. Daughters Laurel and Melissa were born at St. John’s Hospital and were officially declared to be Jackson Hole natives. Laure, a scholar like her mother, was killed by a drunk driver on August 10, 1989, a. date when the world stood still for her mother, father, and loving sister. Melissa went on to graduate from Lewis and Clark College and now pursues art and music.

The whole family was interested in art. Sharon especially enjoyed creating handmade collages and holiday cards with her children. Travel included trip to the desert southwest and the English countryside, where Sharon put together tours of Neolithic stone circles for the family, which included Avebury and Stonehenge and many other more obscure sites.

Sharon began selling her jewelry from home and at art fairs sponsored by the Jackson Hole Art Association. Around 1970 she and Nancy Carson started sharing a jewelry booth and continued to do so for the next twenty-nine years.

Sharon’s career included being a copy editor at the Jackson Hole News, a board member for the Teton County Library, and a substitute teacher in the Teton County School District.

Sharon loved classical music, good literature and poetry, and always had a new novel to read. Gradually she put together a library of her favorite authors. Wildlife was a special interest and she could identify birds at a glance. Sharon believed in human kindness and beauty, taking pleasure in the care of houseplants and garden. She studied Buddhism and that interest took her to India to learn more. Later she traveled to Russia and Poland.

After a long struggle to regain strength from a delayed diagnosis of ovarian cancer, Sharon died on July 4th. Her Spirit throughout months of illness inspired everyone around her. She is survived by her husband, Bob of Victor, Idaho, her son Curtis Walker of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, her two brothers Gregg of Oakland California and Gary Walker of Great Falls, Montana.

November 27, 1988 — June 15, 2019

Christopher James Schumacher, Age 30, passed away June 15th in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a kind, gentle, & loving son, brother, grandson, uncle, nephew, & friend to so many… We find tremendous comfort in knowing that he is at peace after his long struggle with alcoholism.

Chris was proud to be an Aspen Native. He attended Aspen Country Day School, Colorado Rocky Mountain School, and his sense of adventure led him to further studies at the University of Montana and the University of Utah. He was a stand-out athlete who excelled in soccer, freestyle skiing, and multiple other athletic endeavors. An avid outdoorsman, his love of the mountains and nature took him on fabulous adventures in many places, including Chili and Alaska. He was a world traveler and great adventurer.

He is preceded in death by his grandfathers John P. Sedlak and Dr. Lee R Schumacher, and his Grandmother Jane Barry Schumacher.

Chris is survived by his Mother (Judy Schumacher), his Father (B Lee Schumacher), Siblings: John (Annie), Jennifer (Max), Megan, Molly, and Michael; Grandmother (Dorothy Sedlak), Nieces (Grace & Norah), Nephews (Jack & Bodhi), any many loving aunts, uncles, cousins, and countless friends.

There will be a Celebration of Life to honor his memory at the base of Aspen Highlands on Saturday July 6th at 4:00p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Aspen Valley Ski Club Freestyle Program or Phoenix Multi-sport (an organization striving to help those suffering from substance abuse through intense physical activity).

Chris was like a shooting star, he shined so brightly and burnt out much too soon. We will all miss him dearly….

August 2, 1936 — June 4, 2019

John Bales Clark passed away peacefully at his ranch in Old Snowmass, Colorado, with his family at his side. John practiced law for many years, holding State Bar licenses in New York, California and Colorado. He owned several Aspen area businesses, served terms as Chairman of the Snowmass Capitol Creek Caucus and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Colorado Rocky Mountain School. John was loved by many and admired for his intelligence, wit, humor and honesty. For those who loved him, he was larger than life and will be dearly missed.

John was born in Great Bend, Kansas, August 2, 1936 to Ruth and Dwight Clark. John moved with his parents and older brother, Dwight, to Fort Collins, Colorado in 1945. John’s father opened a bookstore and his mother became involved in local politics, eventually serving as one of the first female representatives in the Colorado State Legislature from 1955-1966.

John attended Fort Collins High School and excelled in both academics and athletics. He was elected Student Body President and played for Fort Collins High School when they won the State Football Championship in 1954.

In 1954, John followed his older brother Dwight to Stanford University, where he also played football and rugby. He became a member of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and earned a degree in Engineering in 1958. John received an academic scholarship to Stanford Law School. He served as an editor of the Stanford Law Review and earned his law degree in 1961.

In 1961, John joined the firm of Sullivan and Cromwell in New York City and began what would become a successful and expansive international career as an attorney, mediator and arbitrator, specializing in disputes arising from construction projects. John was named one of Southern California’s Super Lawyers and included in the listing of “Best Lawyers in America” in the specialty of construction law. He was described as an “icon of construction litigation” and “a gentleman who wins cases.”

He was most proud of his pro bono work in support of the California Mountain Lion Foundation, the Sierra Club and the EPA’s Clean Water Act.

John married his high school sweetheart, Susanne Vordenberg in 1964 and together they raised six children.

In his later years, John became an avid polo player, playing in both Old Snowmass, Colorado and Palm Desert, California.

John is survived by his wife of 54 years, Susanne Vordenberg Clark, brothers Dwight D. Clark of Palo Alto, California, Mark H. Clark of Paso Robles, California, sons James T. Woolaway of Basalt, Colorado, Michael W. Woolaway of Venice, California, Scott M. Woolaway of Prescott, Arizona, John A. Clark of Woodside, California, Oliver H. Clark of Los Angeles, California, and daughter, Robyn Clark Liotta of Carbondale, Colorado, and seven grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life is planned for July at his ranch in Old Snowmass.

Donations can be made in John’s memory to the Colorado Rocky Mountain School and Home Care and Hospice of the Valley.

August 26, 1924 — May 23, 2019

Brown, Randolph Randall "Randy" died peace-fully on May 23, 2019 in Bay City, Michigan where he resided with his wife Sherrie (nee Roth). Randy was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 26, 1924 to Elizabeth and Huntington Brown, the third of six children: Elizabeth (Stommel), brother Leslie, twin sister Martha (McGandy), Jon and Christopher. The family moved to Minneapolis in the mid 1930's where Randy spent his childhood and graduated from The Blake School. He entered Harvard with the class of 1951 and graduated with a BA in Geology, an MA in Biology and a MAT in Science Education. From 1950 to 1952 Randy worked at a US weather station in the Canadian Artic, the landscape and experience he was to recall fondly throughout his life. Randy met and married Katharine Hodgdon (Kitty) in 1952 and was immediately drafted to serve in the Korean War. Upon entering the Marines, Randy was assigned to the Weather Department and stationed in San Diego, CA, an appointment he laughingly said was based on his having worked at the Arctic weather station even though his position was that of supply master and he knew little about weather. While in San Diego, Kitty gave birth to their sons, Daniel and Franklin. Shortly after completing his service with the Marines, Randy began his career in education as a high school science teacher in the Boston area where sons, Peter and Matthew were born. After several teaching-related moves in New York state, the family returned to Boston where Randy developed and wrote science curriculum for a textbook company. His participation on the local school board inspired him to transition to the administrative side of education. He served for a number of years as superintendent of the Lincoln-Sudbury School District in Massachusetts, after which he returned to Minneapolis bringing him full circle to become headmaster at The Blake School from 1973 to 1976. Randy served as headmaster at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, CO from 1976 to 1983 where he discovered a deep love for year-round mountain sports including white water kayaking, cross country ski racing, mountain biking, and winter camping. He and Kitty ended their marriage in 1982. Randy finished his productive career in education as headmaster of The Valley School in Swartz Creek, Michigan where he met teacher, Sherrie Roth, whom he married in 1986. After living in several areas of Michigan and in Vermont, they settled in Bay City where they cared for their cat, Noodle, delighted in the variety of backyard birds, and where he read as much as possible, one of his favorite pastimes. Randy is survived by his wife, Sherrie, sister Elizabeth (Chickie) and his four sons, Daniel (Marilyn), Franklin, Peter (Lizzy Derektor), and Matthew (Lia Rivamonte), grand-children Luke, Ramsey, Henry, Thomas, and Natalie, step grandchildren, Sophie and Andrei Kissin, and seven great-grand-children. A memorial service is pending.

September 13, 1926 - May 2, 2019

Born September 13, 1926 in Duluth Minnesota, Tom Congdon developed an abiding love for Colorado and the City of Denver where he prospered as a businessman and philanthropist. After luring his beloved Noël Robbins west from New York City, Tom and Noël raised 3 daughters in Denver and Aspen - Chelsea, Natasha and Lucy.

A graduate of the Hill School of Pennsylvania (1944), Tom enlisted in the US Navy at age 17 and subsequently earned degrees at Yale University(1950) and Harvard Business School (1952). His career in mineral exploration began with Climax Molybdenum Company and grew into several business partnerships including CoCa Mines which developed silver and gold mines in the western US and Canada. Tom also steered a small family-held oil and gas company, St. Mary Parish Land Company, to become a thriving publicly-traded company 30 years later, now known as SM Energy.

Tom enjoyed sailing, travel, art, music, philanthropy and dabbled in cooking and watercolor all of which he shared eagerly with his wife and family. Tom and Noël together contributed generously to the growth of some of Denver's proudest projects and programs including development of historic Larimer Square, the Denver Art Museum, Denver Symphony, Denver Scholarship Foundation, Colorado Public Radio as well as the Aspen Music Festival and School and Colorado Rocky Mountain School. A colorful storyteller, Tom published his memoir in 2018 to share with his grandchildren who delighted him. He was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame benefitting Junior Achievement Colorado on January 31, 2019.

Tom is survived by the light of his life and wife of 60 years Noël, daughters Chelsea Brundige (James), Lucy Hanson (Charlie) and four grandchildren Tashi, Miles, Harper and Lark. His daughter Natasha passed away at age 17. Of all of Tom's accomplishments, his greatest joy and pride was with his family. In lieu of flowers, Tom would be honored to have donations made to the Denver Scholarship Foundation, 789 Sherman Street, Denver 80203, denverscholarship.org.

Gayla Renee Lyons, 53, passed away, peacefully on Tuesday, April 9, 2019.

Gayla was born on December 14, 1965 in El Paso, TX to Lawrence David Lyons and Ginger Bradford Maughs. Gayla moved with her family to Costa Rica where she fell in love with the culture and language of the country. After attending school, and while living in Costa Rica, Gayla became the Executive Chef for the Marriott Los Suenos Resort, exercising her passion for cooking and baking. While serving as chef at the Marriott, Gayla was announced as 1 of the top 5 chefs in Central and South America, a first for the Marriott hotel.

She married Edgar Chaves Castro, on May 3, 1995 in Costa Rica. Gayla and Edgar had recently renewed their wedding vows at Cedars of Lebanon Church of God in Christ in Fayetteville. Both Gayla, Edgar, and their daughter, Lilyana enjoyed the country life in Fayetteville and living on the Adkins Orchard.

Gayla loved gardening, planting herbs, and flowers at her home. Gayla even became proficient in growing her own homeopathic herbs and learning the ways of preparing delicious organic cuisine for her family and friends. She was very passionate about her church, community, and family. Many will also remember Gayla’s love for animals, her kind heart and gentle nature.

She is survived by her husband, Edgar Chaves Castro and daughter, Lilyana of Fayetteville; mother, Ginger Maughs, residing in Houston; father, Lawrence Lyons, and wife Deborah, residing in Dallas; daughter, Teal Tarantino and husband, Drew; two grandchildren: Kristofer and Cosmo all of Petaluma, CA; brother, Dave Lyons of Rollinsville, CO; grandmother, Gladys Dendy of Ruidoso, NM; two aunts: Sarah Acevado of Albuquerque, NM and Nancy Bradford of Ruidoso, NM.

Gayla was preceded in death by her grandmother and grandfather, Carlene and Bill Lyons and grandfather, Morris Bradford.

D. 4/8/2019
https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/remembering-whitewater-kayaking-legend-roger-paris/

February 14, 1963 — March 17, 2019

Martin was a big man with a heart of gold who touched many people. He always said the greatest gift he ever had was his two daughters, Monica and Christina, thanks to his ex-wife Sue. Through them he had his grandson Ayden and the twins Cody and Aleah. His whole world revolved around them and his best friend Jimmy D. Martin also wrote beautiful poetry. He loved Star Trek, old movies, and “Chopped.” He loved his job as a chef at CRMS and the exceptional young men and women who attended there. In high school and college, he was a great athlete. He remained an avid fan of football and the Oakland Raiders. He will be greatly missed. A memorial will be held from 11 to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 13, 2019 at the CRMS Barn with a follow-up from 2 to 5 p.m. at Two Rivers Cafe in Basalt.

July 11, 1939 - March 7, 2019

Thomas G. Moore, age 79, died on Thursday, March 7th, 2019, at home in Carbondale, Colorado. Affectionately known as Tim to many, he was a true gentleman with a great sense of humor.

Tim was in the first class at Colorado Rocky Mountain High School in Carbondale. He later attended Middlebury College in Vermont and graduated in 1964 with a degree in Economics. In 1962, he married Jane Luchsinger, and for a honeymoon with $1800 in their pockets they traveled for a full year hitchhiking around the world. Tim had a life full of adventure.

He worked for 34 years for Gates Rubber Company and Gates Energy Products based out of Denver, Colorado. His work included two international assignments: a three-year move to Venezuela and a four year move to Belgium to run Gates' international divisions.

In retirement, he moved to Carbondale where he enjoyed traveling, hiking, and skiing. He was a member of the 100 Club, served on the board for Habitat for Humanity for several years, and was active in the local community. He was a true Colorado native with tremendous pride in his Colorado roots.

Not only was he an incredible husband but was a devoted father, coaching his kids in sports, teaching them to ski at an early age, instilling the importance of education and supporting his four kids through college. He is survived by his wife Jane Moore, children Eliza (Milton) Hunholz of Watkins, Colorado, Jenny (Greg) Treece of Carson City, Nevada, Sam (Jacque) Moore of Phoenix, Arizona, and Paco (Ingrid) Moore of Richmond, Virginia. He is also survived by 8 grandchildren (Sophie, Crary, Wit, Nathan, Teagan, Nelson, Clare, and Lucky), brothers Mike Moore of Evergreen, Charles Moore of Loveland, and Hugh Moore of Gold Hill, sisters Jinny and Dorsey Moore, both of Carbondale, many nieces and nephews, cousins and wonderful friends. Tim was preceded in death by his parents Tom and Ruth, brother Kit and nephew Cam.

January 30, 1947 - November 16, 2018

Commitment to service marked Eric Richardson Calhoun's life. He spent it joyfully in dedication to his wife and children, the larger Richardson family, the Greensboro community, and a wide variety of organizations working for the greater good. From a young age he lived by a heartfelt code learned at Camp Agawam, whose principles were founded on the sense that one's life should be dedicated to acts of kindness and service to others. His life and achievements embodied that ethos, and while his work in this life is done, the impact he had on his family members, countless friends, and the world beyond live on. Eric passed away peacefully at the age of 71 on November 16, 2018 in Wilmington, North Carolina after spending six months fighting a degenerative neuromuscular disease. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Mary Sitterson Calhoun; his brother, John and Charlotte Calhoun; sister-in-law Sue Calhoun; his brothers-in-law Curtis Sitterson, Joe Sitterson and Lisa Nanney; his aunt Anne Carlson; and Mary and Eric's four children: Rich and Katie Calhoun, Carly Calhoun and Sam Despeaux, Nancy Calhoun and Brian Kilkelly, and Beda Calhoun and Gordon Klco; as well as four loving grandchildren, whom he adored, Gage, Ber, Sigrid and Boden Calhoun; and nine nieces and nephews. He has been predeceased by his parents Newton Sudduth Calhoun and Beda Carlson Calhoun, and his brother, David Calhoun. Eric was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on January 30th, 1947 and spent his childhood with his older twin brothers, John and David, in Connecticut. He graduated from The Hotchkiss School in 1965, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1970. He then married Mary Howard Sitterson, and they began their married life by packing up their Jeepster and heading West. They made a home in Jackson, WY and spent several years exploring the mountains, forming a bond with the place and friends that would last his lifetime. They returned to North Carolina where Eric earned his MLA in Landscape Architecture from NC State University before settling in Greensboro, where they raised their four children. Eric dedicated his forty-year professional career to Richardson Properties, twenty years of which he served as president and CEO, leading and growing the company before retiring in 2015. In addition, he acted as vice chairman of Piedmont Trust. He was deeply committed to many organizations, serving in leadership roles for the Greensboro Science Center, Greensboro Day School, Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, Family Service of the Piedmont, Piedmont Land Conservancy, Center for Creative Leadership, Colorado Rocky Mountain School, and Camp Agawam. His good-heartedness and wry humor accompanied him through the well-trod routes of his favorite places, be they barbecue joints or boards of directors. In his empty nest adult life, his annual walkabouts explored open country: hiking the depths of the Grand Canyon, slot canyons and red rocks of the American Southwest; driving in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado; and most recently returning to New Zealand, a place of his early adulthood, with his wife, Mary. His was a life lived well, full of friendship and love, and an enduring commitment to making the world a better place.

April 25, 1940 - August 31, 2018

Edwin “Ed” Marston, a physicist turned environmental journalist and political organizer, died Aug. 31 in Grand Junction, Colorado, of complications of West Nile virus. He was 78 years old. He is survived by his wife and working partner, Betsy Marston, of Paonia, Colorado.

Ed Marston was born April 25, 1940, in New York to Jack and Matilda Marston, both European immigrants. He graduated from New York’s competitive Stuyvesant High School in 1958, and from the City College of New York in 1961. He earned his doctorate in solid-state physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1968.

In 1966, Marston married Elizabeth “Betsy” Pilat, a public television producer, in New York. The couple had two children and lived in the tri-state area. During this period, Marston worked as an assistant professor of physics at Queens College of New York, and then as an associate professor of physics at Ramapo College of New Jersey. His textbook for non-physics college students, The Dynamic Environment, was published during his teaching career.

In 1974, the Marstons and their two children Wendy, aged 4, and David, aged 2, moved across the country to Paonia, Colorado, a coal mining and orchard town of 1,400 people below the mountains where the family had built a summer cabin. The plan was to take a year off, but just months into the year, the Marstons started the weekly North Fork Times, and he never returned to the field of physics. The Marstons sold their first paper in 1980, and in 1982 founded an environmental paper to cover the western slope of Colorado, the Western Colorado Report. In 1983, they folded that publication into the bi-weekly High Country News, which covered environmental issues primarily in Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, as well as the entire western United States.

Marston became publisher of High Country News, which continues to cover the West for its 35,000 subscribers who live all over the country. His wife, Betsy Marston, was his partner in all journalistic ventures. He held that writing and administrative post for 19 years until 2002, when he retired.

As the publisher of High Country News, Marston received the prestigious George Polk award for journalism in 1986 for the series “Western Water Made Simple,” which was later published as a book. In 1990, the University of Colorado, Boulder, awarded him its first Wallace Stegner Award “for faithfully and evocatively depicting the spirit of the American West.”

Marston wrote and published pieces that helped define the American West. These included an interview with Floyd Dominy, the chief of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation; an analysis of the amenity economy; and a profile of progressive ranchers that brought conservation and agriculture together.

Marston was always involved in public life, serving for 18 years on the elected Delta-Montrose Electric Association co-op board, as well as terms with volunteer boards including Delta County Economic Development, Paonia Chamber of Commerce, Solar Energy International, and the Blue Sage Community Art Center. In 2008, he and his wife were named “Champions of the Rockies,” an honor given by Colorado College as part of its State of the Rockies annual report.

Marston was a fierce defender of the West’s birthright of public lands and a generous mentor with young and emerging writers. Many of the writers Marston worked with went on to brilliant careers in journalism and public service.

Marston was a burr in the side of the U.S. Forest Service during the 1990s. One of his notable editorials was headlined: “It’s time to clear-cut the Forest Service.” He was also a commercial developer of Paonia’s two-block downtown and a fierce opponent of anyone — no matter how well funded and powerful — who used political influence to try to close off access to wilderness. Between 2012 and 2015, Marston fought a drawn-out battle with billionaire Bill Koch, who tried to use a congressional land swap to block public access to the Raggeds Wilderness and its elk herd. Ultimately Marston blocked Koch.

Marston is survived by his wife of 52 years, Betsy, who lives in Paonia; daughter Wendy Lehmann and her husband Benjamin Lehmann, and their children Maude and Bruno; and son David Marston and his wife, Edel Clarke, and their daughter Sorcha, all of New York. His also leaves his sister, Ann Rock, of Florida; and cousin Steve Lidofsky and his wife, Lis, of Vermont.

Marston was known to be engaged and curious about issues, politics, and people. He had definite, well-informed ideas about the correct way to do things and was an energetic ally and a formidable foe in local and regional disputes. He loved to think about how to solve problems, and although he found Delta County frustrating in many ways, he loved working with local government, organizations, and citizens to make changes. Marston thrived on conversation and was never shy about asking people about their lives. He also belonged to a book club that he found stretched his mind.

A city kid who grew up in Queens, New York, and worked as a bicycle Good Humor ice cream vendor during the summers, Marston said that rural life brought out the best of him. He was an avid hiker and cross-country skier and appreciated living close to the natural world. Most of all, he was grateful that he and his family chose, 44 years ago, to make a leap of faith and settle in the small town of Paonia, a place Marston protected, agitated and cherished.

May 3, 1950 - August 10, 2018

Ellen LeCompte, 68, died August 10 from a fall in her home in Lawrence, Kansas. Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado to Oliver and Janet LeCompte, the second of six children, Ellie grew up in that city, attending local public schools and later the Colorado Springs School for Girls before transferring to the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado, where she graduated in 1968. Ellie thrived in the alternative school's iconoclastic atmosphere, where students helped operate the school's farm and build barns.
Ellie attended Pitzer College in Claremont, California and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah before completing her undergraduate work at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. She held various jobs during and after her college studies, including teaching English at the Technical Vocational Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico and working in administration for the Colorado Springs Symphony.

Ultimately deciding on a career as a psychologist, she entered the psychology program at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, receiving her Ph.D. She spent the rest of her life working in Topeka and Lawrence as a practicing therapist.

She lived life to the fullest, but of all her passions, her love of animals stands out, especially the love of her standard poodles. From childhood on, she was always surrounded by high-spirited poodles: Rachel, Mitch, Wiley, Jannie and dozens more; two, three and even four at a time. Their intelligence and charm delighted her. When one of her poodles disdained ball-chasing, she translated its attitude: "Chasing balls? That's for dumb dogs!"

She was known for her generosity, offering her time and treasure to a multitude of causes. She sometimes rescued injured animals on the roadside, unhesitatingly funding the huge veterinary bills needed to restore the creature's health.

Ellie's vivacious personality filled any room, drawing people to her. More than a few of her friends and family, not to mention her patients, could say she had rescued them. She will be sorely missed.

She was married twice and had no children. She leaves behind four siblings, Jenny Anderson of Berthoud, Colorado; Charles LeCompte of Brookline, Massachusetts; Tom LeCompte of Sharon, Massachusetts; and Peter LeCompte of Walanae, Hawaii.

July 14, 1960 – August 5, 2018

Wendaleigh Heavner West, 58, of Noble passed away Sunday, August 5, 2018, at Norman Regional Hospital.

She was born July 14, 1960, in Laguna Beach, CA to Frank Heavner and Anne Murchison. In 1979 she married Brad Scott West in Dallas, TX.

Wendaleigh was a very generous, loving and caring person. She enjoyed family vacations, gardening and cheering on her Dallas Cowboys. Above all, she loved her family. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her.

Left to cherish her memory is her husband Brad; children: Bradley Scott West II and fiancé Ashley Stokes of Norman, Lauren Brady Robinson and husband Brandon of Norman, Ryan Daniel West and wife Lluvia; grandchildren: Jaden Robinson, Riley Robinson, Elle Robinson, Sarah Jane West, Ryan Daniel West Jr., Austin Eli West, Avery Grace West; brother Chris Heavner and sister Jennifer Baker as well as many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents and brother.

A celebration of life was held on Tuesday, August 14 at 10:00 AM at Studio of the Sooner Theatre, 110 East Main Street, Norman, OK 73069.

September 6, 1947 - June 18, 2018

Margaret McClintock Graham, a former director of the Tomales Village Community Services District who helped run Mostly Natives nursery for over 30 years, died last June in a car accident in Colorado. She was 70 years old.

Margaret is remembered by many in West Marin as a warm, straightforward friend and dedicated member of her community. Her husband, Walter Earle, said she was the bravest woman he ever knew.

That bravery manifested itself in myriad ways: trips that spanned the globe when she was a student in college, a move to an unfamiliar coast, a willingness to engage with a goodhearted stranger. When a tree came down in her neighbor’s driveway, she was the first to come over, chainsaw in hand. Once, in her youth, during a party at the mansion of Colorado Governor Richard Lamb, Margaret observed well-heeled guests making a mess of the floor’s white carpets and asked the governor if she could go barefoot in his home. He laughed and told her he would be honored.

Margaret’s curiosity led her to be knowledgeable about a range of topics, and she loved the natural world in particular. “When you talked to Margaret, you had a good time,” her friend and neighbor Sara Duskin said. “You left feeling you’d had a good conversation, whether it was about her lavender plants or a political issue or where she’d been hiking.”

Margaret was born on Sept. 6, 1947, in Denver, Colo. to Charles Andrew Graham and Jean Charters Graham. Mr. Graham was a Yale-educated lawyer and Mrs. Graham a professor of political science at the University of Denver who later worked for Gov. Lamb choosing judicial appointments for the state’s courts.

Both of Margaret’s parents were involved in Democratic politics and held fundraisers for various candidates, including Tim Worth and David Skaggs. Margaret had two older siblings, Andy and Judy, both of whom have passed on.

After attending the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, a boarding school near Aspen, Margaret went off to Barnard College in New York City. But she found the city far too noisy, left after a year, and matriculated to Friends World College, a Quaker school that allowed her to get an education all over the world.

As part of her program in cultural anthropology, Margaret travelled to the Middle East, India, Nepal, Kenya and Japan. She hitchhiked in Afghanistan and learned how to navigate a Volkswagen bus through streets lined with sleeping drunks in Kenya. She graduated in 1972 and arrived in West Marin soon after.

Margaret’s first home in Marin was in Point Reyes Station, in a house on the mesa owned by a friend of hers from Colorado. The natural beauty appealed to her; in addition to loving flora and fauna, Margaret was an avid hiker.

While in Point Reyes Station, Margaret was briefly married to Richard Wiltermood and had a son, Rishi. When her friend sold the house on the mesa, Margaret purchased a 1957 Chevy school bus and parked it on a friend’s property in Marshall. She lived there for a number of years with Rishi in tow.

“It was a school bus from Shasta County, so it was one of those shorter, squat ones designed for skinny little country roads,” Mr. Earle said. Margaret had just moved out of the bus and into an old chicken coop she had fixed up on a property across the street when the two met.

Margaret first encountered Mr. Earle in 1981, thanks to dead fish and a good sense of humor. At the time, both were employed by the Department of Fish and Game. Margaret was working for the wardens, ensuring that fish buyers were not swindling fishermen. Mr. Earle was in charge of sampling fish to determine the herring spawn count.

One day, while he was picking out fish to sample, a co-worker yelled that he was turning on the offloading machine—implying that a boatload of fish was about to fall on Mr. Earle. He quickly jumped aside, only to realize that the other man had been joking. Relieved to find himself fish-free, Mr. Earle started laughing—a reaction that endeared him to Margaret.

“I looked over and saw this woman, and she was smiling, and she came over and said, ‘I just figured you’d be mad when he did that, but you laughed!’” Mr. Earle remembered.

Margaret was intrigued by the work the men were doing, and soon after she became Mr. Earle’s new partner, both in life and in the fish sampling business. They were married on Oct. 9, 1982, and had a son, Kris, in 1984.

In 1983, Margaret and Mr. Earle decided they wanted to do something with a piece of property they had purchased in Tomales.

While Mr. Earle had worked as a gardener and landscaper, Margaret initially protested, saying she didn’t know anything about plants. But she quickly learned, and when Mostly Natives opened off of Highway 1 in 1984, she was in the thick of it, growing the nursery’s supply of native shrubbery.

Nancy Shine, who worked at Mostly Natives for 25 years, remembers Margaret teaching her the names of the native plants and the many ways to care for them. “She liked plants that were shrubs, and trees and grasses—she wasn’t so much into the flowering plants,” Ms. Shine said. She used to tease Margaret that she unduly enjoyed deadheading (the process of removing dead flowers from a plant) because it allowed her to attack the flowers.

While some might find it difficult to work alongside one’s spouse day after day for three decades, Mr. Earle said he had always found it a pleasure. “She was super curious about everything,” he said. “She was good at customer service and answering people’s questions.” Eventually, however, the amount of time and energy expended on the business became too much for the couple, and they sold it last year.

Margaret was “a big personality in Tomales,” Ms. Duskin said. At various points in time, she was involved in a host of community organizations in town, including the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District, the Tomales Village Community Services District and the Tomales Emergency Response Network. She was also involved in the creation and maintenance of the downtown park.

Both friends and family spoke to her ability to truly be present, both in the community and in her personal interactions. “When you went into the nursery she was so there,” Ms. Duskin said. “She always put down what she was doing and would ask you about yourself.”

Her son Kris agreed, saying that his mother’s presence in his life had been a sweet and steadying constant.

“She was never not there, never afraid to tell me flat out what I needed to hear,” he said. “She was just there, and that’s the part I’ll miss the most.”

July 7, 1929 - Aug. 8, 2018

Here’s what we wrote on Facebook:
Charlie was the son of Steve Shanzer, who greatly influenced the art/silversmithing program at CRMS. At the start of WW2 Charlie and his sister, Doris, were on the last children's refugee boat to sail from Marseilles to Australia where they lived with adoptive parents for the duration of the war. After the war, Charlie came to the US and in 1949 came to Aspen. In 1951 he persuaded Steve, who at that time had been living in New York, to move to Aspen. In 1953 Steve, at the age of 64, was hired by John & Anne Holden to teach French, German and silversmithing at CRMS. He introduced fold-boats to the students, too! Charlie says in his book (Escape Home) "In the 1960s I designed a 'jewelry hogan' at CRMS to my father's specifications." Charlie was a frequent visitor to the school throughout the 60s & 70s and even accompanied Steve and students on several spring trips. In 2013 Charlie published Escape Home: Rebuilding a Life after the Anschluss, which chronicled his father's life as well as his own.

https://www.aspentimes.com/news/local/charles-paterson-founder-of-aspen-iconic-boomerang-lodge-dies/

September 9, 1986 – May 20, 2018

Michael Joseph Colangelo III, of Huntington Station, died on Sunday, May 20 at age 31.

Beloved husband of Katherine (Berger). Survived by his mother and father Ellen (Reynolds) and Michael Colangelo II.  Colangelo was an NYPD officer assigned to the Canine Unit.

October 1, 1929 - April 14, 2018

George William Stricker passed away on April 14, 2018 after a brief illness. He is survived by two brothers, Jim and Dave, four children, Cynthia, Peter (Cevin), Brian (Julia), and Scott (Sheila), three grandchildren, Leianna, Keoki, and Josh, and two great grandchildren, Isiaiah and Maleia. He is also survived by a world of dear friends.

George was born in The Pas, Manitoba, Canada on October 1, 1929 to American parents. He was raised in Minneapolis, MN where he attended the Blake School; he went on to earn a BA and an MBA at Stanford University, graduating in 1953. Subsequently, he joined the Air Force and met Rolleen Taylor in San Antonio TX. They married soon after, lived in Del Rio TX (where their first child, Cynthia was born), moved to Albuquerque NM, and then to Carbondale CO in 1958 where their three sons were born.

The Stricker family lived on the banks of the Crystal River fly fishing, raising animals, and spending their summers backpacking in the Rockies and the Canyonlands of Utah. As the family was sitting around a campfire under a mountain peak somewhere, George was known to ask the rhetorical question, “Where would you rather be?”.

George worked as the business manager and taught history at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School and later became the Director of Adult Education at the newly founded Colorado Mountain College. The family moved to Gig Harbor WA in 1975 where George ran the adult education program at the University of Puget Sound.

In 1980, his career track took a radical turn into the wind energy field. George was intrigued by renewable energy and became a self-taught developer which took him to Colorado, Hawaii, the Cook Islands, India, China, and various parts of California. George explored the world, living in Europe, Seattle, Palm Springs, and Tehachapi.

In 1995, George retired from the wind business and moved to South Lake Tahoe CA where his son, Brian lived. Not content with golf or taking cruises, he bought a lodge on 20 acres of forest land in the Hope Valley surrounded by the high Sierras, and created a retreat center. During the seven years he owned the property, he hosted numerous weddings, mediation retreats, and sweat lodge ceremonies. In 2006, George moved to the Chesapeake Bay where he bought a house on a small inlet. In 2011, he moved to Austin TX to be close to Cynthia and Scott. Not one to sit idle, George became a volunteer at Barton Hills Elementary School, mentored a boy, and volunteered with Hospice Austin to help terminally-ill people navigate the dying process.

George was an empathic listener and an incorrigible story-teller who always had a joke or a pun available for his captive audience. He was a master at helping others feel loved and cared for and lived true to his mantra, “KEEP SMILING”.

In his own words, George said, “If I am remembered very long, maybe it will be for something I represented rather than for my character or personality, something like: ‘Here’s lies a kind person’, or ‘George always tried to help,’ or ‘The world would be better off if more were like him’, or some similar sort of epitaph. My writing will not be published. My art will not be collected. My woodwork will crumble. But maybe my smile will be passed on and light the eyes of others… Maybe the children I knew will become doctors, professors, clergy-persons, inventors, artists, statesmen, or others who can nudge civilization along an evolutionary path toward greatness. Who could ask for more?”

The family is eternally grateful to the staff of Barton Hills Assisted Living. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hospice Austin.

May 27, 1936 - March 20, 2018

Mary Beil Gerdeman was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Elizabeth Lee Beil and Wallace Beil, an ophthalmologist. Mary’s early childhood with her older sister, Betty, was spent in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her favorite memories of this time are from Mississippi where her family bought their first horses and learned horsemanship while riding near a family cottage.

As a teenager, Mary moved to Upper Gallinas Canyon near Montezuma, New Mexico where her parents bought a mountain ranch for Tennessee Walkers and Morgan horses. Mary and her sister, Judy, rode often through the Sangre de Cristo mountains while living on the Lazy B Ranch, later renamed El Porvenir Ranch. Mary attended school in nearby Las Vegas. Her senior year, Mary and her horse moved to the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado where she was one of 2 members of the inaugural graduating class in 1954. Her younger sister, Judy, graduated from CRMS as well eight years later.

While attending Highland College in Las Vegas, she met her husband, James Gerdeman. She married Jimmy in 1958, and the couple moved to Austin where she completed her BA in German and Jimmy completed his law degree at the University of Texas. Following graduation, the two moved to Lubbock, Texas where they raised their three daughters. Jimmy ran a law practice and Mary worked for him as a legal secretary. When their daughters were older, Mary accepted a job as a secretary at Texas Tech University.

After Mary and Jimmy divorced in 1981, she started a career in Medical Records. She attended South Plains College and earned an Accredited Records Technician certificate in 1985. She returned to Texas Tech as a medical transcriptionist until her retirement in 1999.

In Lubbock, Mary enjoyed museums, the symphony, weaving, and Texas Tech football. As some of her long-time friends left the area, she considered a move to be closer to family.

In 2004, Mary moved to San Diego near her daughter Amanda’s family. She lived in the Seven Oaks Community of Rancho Bernardo and was an active participant with the RB Travel Club, the Continuing Education Center, and the Daytrippers. With travel club friends, she saw sights across California and traveled to Alaska, New England, Hawaii and Nashville. She loved books, chamber music, opera, and the symphony as well as the San Diego Museum of Art.

Since March 2017, Mary has enjoyed life with new friends at the Belmont Village where she was a regular at the musical performances, trivia, word games, and lectures.

November 28, 1955 - December 21, 2017

Christopher Wylie Link son of M.P. Link Jr. and Elizabeth C. Link.

Chris is survived by his sons, Marshall Link and Tucker Link; their mother Amy Link; his brother Douglas Link; his nieces, Mona Ohmart and Jennifer Link; nephew, Peter Link; grandnephew, Gus Colby and grand nieces, Faith Ohmart and Lena Colby.

Chris was a farmer, carpenter, cabinet and furniture maker, real estate agent, musician, and guitar collector extraordinaire. He was a man of many talents and interests; a student of history, language, culture, and human nature; a lover of books, animals, and the great outdoors. He was an avid camper, hiker, and supporter of environmental organizations.

Christopher will be sorely missed by his family and long-time wide circle of friends. His empathy, compassion, and sparkling sense of humor, along with his razor-sharp intellect, will not be forgotten.

April 18, 1933 - November 10, 2017

Ed Rubovits died unexpectedly the morning of November 10. He was sitting in the sunshine on the portal of his Santa Fe home, having just split a few logs. His wife of 53 years was with him. Ed had retired from a long career in education which included years of serving as headmaster of the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado, the Verde Valley School in Sedona, Arizona and as head of the upper school of Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Oregon. He was a strong advocate of outdoor and experiential education, and he was an early supporter and organizer of the Portland chapter of Amigos de las Americas. Known for his wry sense of humor, his leadership style often brought perspective to difficult situations. Ed was happiest when he was skiing, hiking, and camping in the mountains or on his bike. In recent years he focused his love of the out of doors on cycling. He enjoyed many tours with Cycle Oregon and participating in school bike trips with students and colleagues. His idea of how to kick off retirement was the solo bicycle trip he took from Missoula, Montana to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Many years ago his infectious biking enthusiasm spread to his wife and his two small sons during a year they spent in France exploring the French countryside on their bicycles. Following his retirement in the mid-'90's Ed and Nancy discovered the Camino de Santiago, the ancient pilgrimage route across Spain, and they developed an ongoing attachment to it. They made four trips to the Camino and were fortunate to travel the 500-mile route both on bikes and on foot and to spend time in a pilgrims' refuge as volunteer hospitaleros greeting and hosting others traveling the route. Ed's passing leaves uncountable friends and family who will miss him dearly. He is survived by his wife, Nancy and sons, Michael and David Rubovits and their spouses, Bronwen Lodato and Piper Davis, and by Ed's beloved granddaughter, Una Rubovits. He is also survived by his brother-in-law and sister-in-law Rick and Marilyn Hyde and by his nephew and nieces, Jeff, Katie, and Kristen Hyde. Ed said more than once, "we have had wonderful adventures and great good fortune." Donations to his memory may be made to the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, Carbondale, Colorado.

July 10, 1944 — October 30, 2017

She is survived by her husband of 32 years, Mark Luttrell; her sons Adam Infascelli of Glenwood Springs and Aaron Luttrell of Carbondale; her two sisters Janice Nuckols of Kaneohe, Hawaii, and Nora Nuckols of Vancouver, British Columbia; her two aunts and an uncle in Willimantic, Conn.; nieces, nephews and cousins; as well as many, many good friends.

Maureen was born in Kingsville, Texas, went to high school in Marietta, Ohio, and earned her R.N. from Good Samaritan Hospital in Zanesville, Ohio. She then went on to earn a B.S.N. from the University of Cincinnati and an M.S.N. from the University of Massachusetts. She moved from Boston to Glenwood Springs with her then-husband Joe Infascelli and began nursing at Valley View Hospital in 1975. She moved to Carbondale for the first time to become the residential school nurse and health educator for Colorado Rocky Mountain School.

Maureen later attended the University of Denver, where she earned her master's degree in counseling before returning to Carbondale, where she established her own counseling practice. She then worked a stint at the Advocate Safehouse in Glenwood Springs before Maureen began teaching nursing at Colorado Mountain College. She retired as a professor of nursing in 2011, although she continued to teach clinical and skills labs as adjunct faculty until 2014.

Maureen was committed to the Roaring Fork Women's Triathlon team for 18 years, serving as a coach in various roles, and was just named coach emeritus this summer. She competed Aug. 4, 2017, in the Tri For The Cure in Denver, finishing with her best time in three years. She was also a member of the Tri-Glenwood 30-year club.

After her multiple myeloma diagnosis seven years ago, she was a vibrant member of the Cancer Coffee Walk & Talk group at Valley View Hospital. Maureen loved to give back to the community, most recently serving as a volunteer with the Rosiebelle Art Project, as well as the Carbondale Library Wednesday after-school art program. She was an annual volunteer at Carbondale Mountain Fair as the pie judge, always in a memorable costume. She was also very active in the Carbondale Methodist Church. She provided babysitting, dogsitting and respite care for many of her friends.

Essentially, wherever there was a need, Maureen was there. Maureen was loved and will be remembered by many. She spent 30 years as a volunteer fireman and EMT for the Carbondale Fire Department, so a celebration of her life was held at the firehouse on Sunday, Dec. 3.

February 12, 1990 - October 8, 2017

Having lived for 27 years with the great joy and spirit that was Hayden Kennedy, we share the loss of our son and his partner Inge Perkins as the result of an avalanche in the southern Madison Mountains near Bozeman, Montana, on October 7th.

Inge Perkin’s body was recovered by the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center at the base of Mt. Imp on October 9th. Hayden survived the avalanche but not the unbearable loss of his partner in life. He chose to end his life. Myself and his mother Julie sorrowfully respect his decision.

Hayden truly was an uncensored soul whose accomplishments as a mountaineer were always secondary to his deep friendships and mindfulness.

He recently moved to Bozeman to work on his EMT certification while Inge completed her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and education at Montana State University.

“Over the last few years, however, as I’ve watched too many friends go to the mountains only to never return, I’ve realized something painful,” wrote Hayden in Evening Sends just last month. “It’s not just the memorable summits and crux moves that are fleeting. Friends and climbing partners are fleeting, too. This is the painful reality of our sport, and I’m unsure what to make of it. Climbing is either a beautiful gift or a curse.”

June 6, 1940 - August 25, 2017

September 14, 1972 - May 10, 2017

September 14, 1972 - May 10, 2017

Don Harvey passed away peacefully May 5, 2017, at his home surrounded by family. Don was born in Montreal, Canada and was raised in Spokane, Washington. He graduated from Whitman College and then went to McGill University in Montreal for medical school, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Don performed his residency at Southern Pacific Hospital in San Francisco where he chose the specialty of Urology.

Don met the love of his life, Jane Mildred Hasfurther, in first grade. They dated through high school and college and were married in 1955. Don and Jane chose to live in Lucas Valley, California, which provided an ideal setting to raise their four boys. They had a rich and full life together, enjoying sailing on the San Francisco Bay, traveling with friends, and family vacations. Every year the family had wonderful vacations at the beach in Bolinas, on the delta at Tinsley Island and, of course, at their beloved Spirit Lake in Idaho. Five generations of Harveys have vacationed at Spirit Lake. Don and Jane spent six months at the lake every year after Don's retirement in 1999.

Don had a distinguished career in medicine. He was a fine surgeon who truly cared about his patients. He enjoyed getting to know them as people and learning about their families and lives. Don served as President of the Marin Medical Society and Commodore of the San Francisco Yacht Club.

Don loved his projects. He restored nautical antiques and wooden speedboats. But his favorite project was expanding the cabins at Spirit Lake so all his children and grandchildren could gather together every summer.

Don is survived by his wife Jane, sons David, Kent, Philip, and Peter and 10 grandchildren.

Published in Spokesman-Review on May 21, 2017

May 13, 1937 - January 21, 2017

Tony Perry died Jan. 21 peacefully in his beloved Colorado home in the arms of his loving family.

To find words to summarize Tony's life is daunting, as he accomplished so much. He was a complex man, memorable and loved.

He was born May 13, 1937, in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Margaret and Parker Perry, and spent his early years in Stowe and Manchester, Vermont. He followed his heart to the mountains of Colorado at 16 to a newly organized Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale. This environment nurtured his independent, adventuresome character, where he worked, skied, traveled and earned a ski scholarship to The University of Denver, excelling at athletics and hotel management. He struggled with dyslexia and became very adept at recognizing the skills he lacked, surrounding himself with capable people to help him accomplish his goals. He went on to help others with this affliction to follow a successful path.

A born entrepreneur, his charm, and interest in people drew him to the hospitality business soon after college. After a short stint in the Colorado National Guard, he opened nightclubs in New York, Stowe and Manchester, Vermont, and later turned his attention to the restaurant business. The Sirloin Saloons, Dakotas, Sweetwaters, Perry's Fish House - all institutions representing beauty, fun, great food and lasting memories for the millions who entered their doors.

During the four decades that he ran his many restaurants throughout the Northeast, he employed thousands of people through The Perry Restaurant Group and evolved a management style that was years ahead of its time. He took a deep and abiding interest in the people he worked with, recognizing that by giving them the opportunity to grow and succeed as individuals, their contribution to the business would develop. He put in place an employee stock ownership plan in the 1980s where all employees could benefit; he sent people on courses that helped them empower their lives rather than just their jobs, and he developed an inclusive style of management that engendered immense loyalty to this day.

He supported generously many causes close to his heart - he educated countless children, supported green start-ups, wildlife conservation, The Vermont Land Trust, Nature's Conservancy, music and the arts.

He was a born seeker and adventurer, traveling to over 50 countries, often bringing along his friends and family to share his experiences. He heli-skied throughout the Canadian Rockies, he was an avid fisherman and hunter, at home in the woods as anywhere. He raised a herd of majestic buffalo on his hilltop farm in Vermont with sweeping views of Lake Champlain from his rustic log cabin he built around an apple tree.

He amassed a matrix of friends as diverse as his interests, most who he remained connected to throughout his life. He had a genuine and lasting impact on so many, freely giving love, support and confidence where he felt he was needed. So many thought of him as their best friend.

Tony was profoundly connected to nature and beauty. His love and appreciation of the Native American culture and art form was a passion that brought him endless pleasure.

He was tireless in his quest for the meaning of life, periodically trading his business work for his spiritual journey, moving to an ashram for a time to find fulfillment and love. His pursuit led him to his soul mate, and he and Teri were married in 1995.

For 22 years, they traveled and skied and fly-fished around the world. They built wonderful homes in Colorado, Mexico, and Nantucket, and mostly they enjoyed their transcendent love for each other every day.

His sanctuary was his Colorado mountain ranch, high in the wildflowers, where he built his "Stonehenge" as a legacy. However, his true legacy will last for eternity in the lives that have been altered by his love.

Tony was spiritual, funny, loving and so immeasurably generous.

He lived and died with unequaled courage undaunted by his illnesses, and full of gratitude.

He leaves behind a world enriched by his presence. He is survived by his sister, Judy Perry Rowe, and his nieces, Wendy, Jane and Jenny, his stepson Kenan, Miya and his wonderful grandchildren, Jack, Eliza and Sebastian, who brought special joy to his later years. His extended family is too numerous to mention, but no less important - forever connected in love. Not left behind, but traveling beside him for eternity is his adoring wife, Teri Giguere Perry.

Please honor nature in memory of Tony. We have set up a website online at www.tonyperry.life to share memories, photos, and information about his services.