People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Richard "Buddy" Elze
- Parade Marshall, Cattlemen's Days 2014, grandfather emigrated from Germany, joined the U.S. Marine Corps, Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association, Elk’s Lodge, 4-H leader, past president of the Cattlemen’s Days Association (source:http://www.cattlemensdays.com/past-cattlemens-days-parade-marshals/2014-parade-marshals/) Cattlemen's Days President in 1974 (source: Cattlemen's Days 1974 Souvenir Program) Father of Debbie Elze (source: Newspaper Clipping "Being Queen is a dream come true")
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- Richard "Dick" Merritt
- LtCol Richard Merritt, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) was born in 1935 in Seattle, WA. He was raised in Enumclaw, a small town at the base of Mount Rainier, where his love of the outdoors and his spirit of service first took root. In high school, Dick attained the rank of Eagle Scout, was student body president, and spent summers fighting fires for Washington’s Division of Forestry. He earned both Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Washington. While in college, Dick received the Navy Reserve Officers Training Scholarship and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in June 1957. “The Colonel” proudly served his country for 26 years, four in the Navy and 22 in the Marine Corps. He served overseas in the Philippines, Vietnam, Republic of China, and Japan, as well as stateside. Dick married his wife, Patricia, in 1975 and they adopted two Taiwanese children while he was serving in the Taiwan Defense Command. He retired from military service and moved to Aspen in 1979. Dick’s childhood love of skiing drew him to Aspen in 1967 while he was on leave from Vietnam. He fell in love with Aspen and soon purchased property, knowing that he would retire here. Dick began teaching skiing at Aspen Highlands in 1971 while on military leave and continued to teach skiing and work on the Ski Patrol after his military retirement. He served as Vice President of Aspen Highlands from 1979-1991. Dick recently retired from Aspen Skiing Company after a staggering 35 years of service to the Aspen ski industry! In 1982, Dick ran for Pitkin County Sheriff. While he didn’t win, he is proud of his effort. Currently Dick is a manager at the Roaring Fork Club in Basalt. Dick’s unwavering commitment to serving country and countryman knows no bounds. In the 1980’s and 90’s, as a board member for Aspen Junior Hockey, Dick coordinated the first High School International Hockey Tournament in sister city Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where the Aspen team finished third. Dick is a past member of the Rotary Club and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Aspen Grove Cemetery and the Smiling Goat Ranch, serving autistic children and veterans recovering from combat trauma. In 2014, he received the Pitkin County Cares Volunteer Service Community Pride Award for his work interviewing local veterans for a permanent video record at the Library of Congress. The Colonel is a board member of Huts for Vets that helps veterans gain tools for enhancing mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health. Most importantly, he ventures into the mountains with these combat veterans as they begin their journey of healing. Dick works with the Aspen Institute and local schools to educate school children and the community about veteran’s issues and is now working with Building Homes for Heroes to provide a home for a Marine Corps sergeant who sustained injuries serving in Afghanistan.-Photo and bio from the Aspen Hall of Fame website
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- Richard "Dick" Unruh
- "Dick Unruh: Today, he is an unassuming gentleman in a white cowboy hat and matching beard, a lawyer in a small Western town who defends those who have gotten themselves into trouble. But back in the ’70s, when Telluride was an unpaved mountain hideaway inhabited by old miners and a clutch of ski bums, Dick Unruh was a cowboy hippie in the thick of it—the antics and lifestyle that have become the stuff of legend. Once or twice along the way, he even found himself in a little trouble of his own. Unruh has lived in Telluride off and on since 1972, which, by the standards of transient Telluride, makes him a bona fide oldtimer. He has the rare distinction of being here before Telluride was given a resort makeover of mansions and opulence and sky-high real estate prices—back when lots were dirt cheap and things were a little looser. “It was a very free place, maybe too free,” Unruh says with a little chuckle. “We had a lot of fun.” Many Telluride originals from the ’70s have moved on or faded away, while Unruh has remained, carving himself a cozy little niche in the fringe West. But it’s not just his duration that makes him notable. Unruh has worn many hats in this county, besides the 10-gallon kind: town attorney, KOTO DJ, skier and wrangler. He was among those who wrote the Home Rule; he sat on San Miguel County Planning and Zoning when plans for Mountain Village were drawn up; and he’s been chair of the county Democratic party for six years. Unruh often wears boots, and there’s always a cowboy hat atop his head (he buys spectacular lids from Nathaniel’s in Mancos). His face bears the ruddiness of years under the mountain sun, and when he smiles, his steely blue eyes twinkle mischievously. Born in 1940 in Kansas City, Missouri, his father was a farm boy who went there during the Depression to work in an automobile assembly plant; his mother, a country girl, was a school secretary. They lived on the outskirts of town, grew a huge garden and lived simply. He was an only child, a star football player in high school and an Eagle Scout. After high school, he went to the University of Missouri to study political science and attended law school there. Once he passed the bar, he worked for a federal judge in Kansas City, then served as a prosecutor for the city before throwing his energy at gaining legal rights for indigent people. He supervised a legal aide program in 11 states and set up another in the Virgin Islands before heading West to set up the Colorado Rural Legal Services for agricultural migrant workers. Soon, he found himself in Aspen, at that time a young ski town, free and wild. He took up skiing, practiced law, found a lifestyle he loved. Then one day, he heard an enticing rumor of a fledgling ski area in the southern mountains. Soon after, he was hired to represent Ed Smart and John Wayne (yes, that John Wayne) in a land transaction in what would become East Ophir. And so he ended up in Telluride. The year was 1972. It was a town of 400 souls, most remnants from the mining era. There was one television station and no radio. Long hairs hung out at the Roma or the Sheridan, went skiing and played softball in the park. Unruh lived in the little Victorian that still stands in Telluride Town Park (the present-day Nordic Center and campground check-in). With roommate and fellow roustabout Roudy Roudebush, he opened the Unstable Riding Stables. They had a bunch of horses they pastured in the park and Bear Creek. They hired out the horses, took the occasional star riding, enjoyed the freedom. “The softball players didn’t like us,” Unruh says. “They had to sweep the road apples off home plate.” he says. “We had the place all to ourselves. It was like being out in the country.” In 1975 when KOTO was inaugurated, it became a centerpiece of communication and entertainment. Unruh started to DJ on Sunday nights, calling his slot “The Open Road Show with the Old Road Hawg,” a parody of late-night radio for truck drivers. He featured outlaw country, such as Merle Haggard and Waylon and Willie. The show still airs today. During the early bluegrass festivals, back when locals did concessions, Unruh and friend Tex Mex sold ribs wearing just diapers and cowboy hats and boots. The message was, “Mama, don’t let your cowboys grow up to be babies.” He has shaken hands with three presidents (Truman, Johnson and Carter), but it’s the memory of meeting Willie Nelson that really lights him up: Unruh drove to Aspen to meet some friends, and they ended up hanging out with Willie in a hotel with 200 other people…. He trails off. The details are not for print. Somewhere amid the horses and bluegrass festivals and whole outlaw country-boy lifestyle, Unruh had a couple run-ins with the law, including a drug-sting operation that resulted in him losing his license to practice (he regained it a few years later). He doesn’t like to talk about it, but says it made him take a sabbatical from Telluride for a few years to teach. The break, he admits, allowed him some breathing room and probably saved him from getting carried away. For a couple years, Unruh did the wrangling thing. He ran cattle and horses on 80 acres on Wright’s Mesa, raised goats and chickens, lived under a big sky. Eventually, in 1994, he built a cabin in Ophir, where he still lives. These days, he enjoys cross-country skiing on Lizard Head Pass, going to the Norwood Rodeo and Horse Races, hiking and being a DJ on KOTO. He has a private practice and specializes in defending locals in trouble with the law. “I try to help people out when they screw up,” he says simply. His three children are grown: Christian is an entertainment lawyer; Anders works in the environmental field; and Jessie attends college in Kansas. Unruh’s known a lot of old-timers and characters and has a genuine love of this county. But he’s got a granddaughter who’s half-Peruvian and a desire to perfect his Spanish, and a move to South America is likely in his future, he says. With him will go a colorful and unruly piece of Telluride history." Written by Katie Klingsporn, in Telluride Magazine, August 7, 2009: https://telluridemagazine.com/dick-unruh/ Accessed 2/10/20.
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- Richard "Dick" Woodfin
- A farm agent on the Western Slope and host for the show Pioneer Reviews on radio station KFXJ (now KREX) during the 1960's. He was born in Missouri to Albert H. Woodfin and Mary E. (Pontier) Woodfin. He was the oldest of five children. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. They moved around Kansas and Oklahoma before they sold a homestead in Oklahoma and bought land in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado in 1916, when Dick was about fifteen years old. According to Dick, he was four years behind in school. He completed the eighth grade but was turned down by the US Marines when he tried to enlist. He became sick during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. The 1920 US Census shows the family living in Cheyenne Wells, with Dick living at home at the age of nineteen. His father is listed as working as a teamster with the city dray. Dick attended the Colorado School of Agriculture, a school for farm boys behind in their schooling. He then attended Colorado State University, graduating in 1929 with a degree in Animal Husbandry. In college, he participated in Alpha Gamma Rho, Lamda Gamma Delta, the Livestock Club, the Junior Stock Judging Team, and the Senior Stock Judging Team. During school breaks, he went to Kansas to stack wheat and save money. After college, he worked for the Advanced Registry of Dariy Cattle, testing milk. The 1930 census shows him living in Big Springs, Nebraska at the age of twenty-nine, where he worked as a public school teacher, teaching vocational agriculture. Shortly after this, he took a position as a agricultural extension agent in Ordway, Colorado. He married Dorothy Irene Carpenter in Ordway on May 17, 1931. Crowley County had insufficient funds for its agricultural extension program, and so he took a five-month position in Fremont County. After a period of unemployment, he was hired as an extension agent in Kit Carson County. The 1940 census shows him working there in that capacity, living with his wife and their two children. He moved to Mesa County in 1946, where he was employed by the Mesa County Extension service (under the auspices of CSU Extension). He worked with farmers to counter problems with agriculture, such as low crop yields due to the excessive use of irrigation water, and a high water table that leads to high alkali content in the soil. He died at the age of 101 and is buried in the Memorial Gardens cemetery of Grand Junction. *Photograph from 1929 Colorado State University yearbook