People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Kenneth Wilson Thompson
- A Glade Park and Mesa County sheepherder, sheep rancher, government trapper, National Park Service and Civilian Conservation Corps employee and road builder, and apple farmer. He was born in Iowa to Warden S. “Ward” Thompson and Etta Grace (Griffith) Thompson. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. The family moved to Clifton, Colorado in 1907, shortly after Kenneth’s birth. In Mesa County, the family farmed fruit. His father had a longstanding bout with tuberculosis and, after twenty-three illness-related surgeries, died in 1919. The family homesteaded on Glade Park, Colorado in 1917. Their land was located a mile west of the Glade Park Store, on the south side of the road. Kenneth’s brother Elvin built a two-bedroom log cabin on the homestead, cutting and moving logs from the Fruita Reserve at the age of fifteen. He and his brother Elvin removed native vegetation, so that the family could farm. The family lived on the homestead, and Kenneth’s mother Etta remarried, this time to sheep rancher Charles Duvall. Duvall purchased a sheep ranch known as the Skinner place. Kenneth left school before 7th Grade in order to work as a sheepherder for Duvall. As an employee of Duvall for seven years, he worked to protect sheep from predators, including coyotes, and became a skilled trapper. After years working for his stepfather, without taking any days off except one short trip to Grand Junction for the county fair, he somehow owed Duvall $100. Duvall was later involved in the deaths of Kenneth’s brother Elvin, and Elvin’s wife and daughter, presumably over Elvin’s land. Kenneth worked for a time as a government trapper. He also hunted and sold rabbits and picked potatoes to contribute financially to his family. He later worked as a sheepherder for Bulladeck, herding sheep on the Bookcliffs west of Hunter Canyon. He was framed for a crime by another sheepherder and fired. He picked apples in Washington state at the age of 21 and trapped animals in Cisco, Utah. One winter, he lived in a cave. He married Roberta A. Varnon in Salt Lake City on October 5, 1933. They had three children. During the 1930’s, he ranched sheep on Pinon Mesa and built the three Thompson Reservoirs, along with an irrigation system for Glade Park. He sold out in 1964 and was paid $25 per acre. He moved to a fruit farm, where he grew apples. He died at the age of 79 and is buried in Grand Junction's Memorial Gardens cemetery. His wife died in 2008 at the age of 99.
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- Kent Rose: Mayor of Vail 1987 - 1991
- Kent Rey Rose was born 10 October 1939 in California, but grew up in Rifle, Colorado. Rose was stationed at Fort Carson near Colorado Springs during his tour in the U.S. Army. In 1962, Rose and his wife, Rayma, drove through the Gore Creek Valley while the Vail ski runs were being created. “Nobody will ever ski here,” was their initial thought. Yet in 1965, the Roses visited Eagle County again. They stayed in a “We Ask You Inn” log cabin near Avon for $8 per night and warmed to the fledgling community of Vail. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a degree in Civil Engineering, Rose accepted a position as Town Engineer for the Town of Vail (TOV). In 1972, Rose became the TOV Public Works Director. Seventeen years later, Rose went into private business and in 1983, he was elected to Vail Town Council. In 1985, Rose served as Mayor Pro Tem of Vail and in 1987, Rose was named Mayor of Vail. Highlights of Rose’s mayoral service included the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships and the building of Vail landmarks such as Dobson Ice Arena, TOV Public Works facility, the sewage treatment plant and its infrastructure, and overseeing major renovations of the Vail Parking Structure. Kent Rose also served on the boards of the TOV Recreation District and Vail Water & Sanitation District. He is an active supporter of the county-wide trail system. Rose counts John Dobson, the 1968-1977 Vail Mayor, Terry Minger, Vail’s first Town Manager, Gordon Britton, a major community supporter and Vail Valley Medical Center benefactor, and Pete Burnette, the local historian and renaissance man from Minturn, as local men he most respected. Kent and Rayma Rose currently reside in Eagle.
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- Keri George
- 1982 Cattlemen's Days Queen, Daughter of Glenn and Melva George, participated in 4-H, high school rodeo, and all-state volleyball. Born in Denver but moved to Gunnison at an early age. (from the Cattlemen's Days 1982 Souvenir Program)
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- Kermit C. "Bru" Brubaker
- He was born to Albert Brubaker and Mary (Firestone) Brubaker in Enid, Oklahoma. His father was an auctioneer and a salesman for a machine company. His mother was a homemaker. US Census records show that he grew up primarily in Oklahoma and Kansas. He attended Washington Elementary School in Anthony, Kansas, Allison Junior High School in Wichita, Kansas, and Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He married Wilma Lorene Terrell in Pueblo on April 1, 1936. His draft card from 1940 shows him as unemployed and planning to open a brokerage firm. The 1940 US Census shows him working as a typewriter salesman. According to the 1950 US Census, he worked in construction for a time. He came with his wife and children to Mesa County, Colorado in 1961 to work as the supply pastor for what was then the United Presbyterian Church (now the Loma Community Church). There, he assisted in remodeling efforts for the church. He also hosted a radio program called “Hymn Time with the Country Parson.” The Brubakers lived during this time in Grand Junction at 422 Belford Avenue. He left the Presbyterian Church in 1965 in order to expand his radio ministry. He ended up becoming a pastor at the Redlands Community Church, where he stayed from 1965 to 1972. He became a pastor for the First Baptist Church in Grand Junction in 1981.