frasier meadows retirement community resident biographies volume

FRASIER MEADOWS
RETIREMENT COMMUNITY
RESIDENT BIOGRAPHIES
VOLUME 20
2012-2013
Dedicated to all — residents and staff — who have loved and
dedicated themselves
to the Frasier Meadows Retirement Community.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and CREDITS
THE WRITERS WISH TO THANK RESIDENTS FOR THEIR
WILLINGNESS TO SUPPLY BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMAT-ION FOR THIS AS WELL AS FOR PAST AND
FUTURE VOLUMES
CONTRIBUTING TO THIS VOLUME:
WRITERS:
JESSMA BLOCKWICK, ELLEN COTTS, ANNE FISHER, IRMA GALUSHA , BETTY HILL, TRISH JUDD, JANET KLEMPERER, PETE PALMER, NANCY TILLEY, PHIL WAGGENER, and
JIM AND NURIT WOLF
COMPUTER FORMATTING AND COPY WORK:
PETE PALMER,
COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON:
PETE PALMER
PHOTOS:
MARK STEINER/LINDA TUBER
.
MINI-BIOGRAPHIES
VOLUME 20
Barker, Dick and Jane
Bradley, Bill and Louise
Crabtree, Jane
De Graaf, Joan
Dickerson, Mary
Duncan, Walter
Harrington, Robert Dean
Hill, Betty
Judd, Trish
Leiper, Joyce
Roecker, Fred and Patty
Tin, Kyi Kyi
Tracy, John and Fay
Troeltzsch, Pat and Bob
Wolf, Jim and Nurit
Note: Master volumes which include all Mini-Biographies written at
Frasier Meadows Retirement Community are located in the History
Room across from the central stairway on the Main Floor.
In addition, all mini-biographies are now available on the FMRC
website. On the top center right of the homepage, click “log in”; then
click “Resident Login”. For both ID and Password, type “resident”.
Then click on Resident Bios and follow the directions there.
DICK AND JANE BARKER
Jane is one of those real rarities -- a Boulder native; Dick wasn’t far behind, moving here with
his family from Algoma, Iowa in 1945 to finish
his senior year in high school. Both Jane and
Dick are Boulder High and CU graduates, Dick
with a BS from the School of Business in 1950
and Jane with a BA degree in Distributed Education, with concentrations in French, Psychology,
Education and Speech. They married in 1952.
After Dick’s military service as an ensign
in the Navy stationed on the east coast of Korea during the Korean war, Dick
joined his father-in-law John Valentine and spent 17 years in the hardware business in downtown Boulder. During this time he served on the board of the
Mountain States Hardware and Implement Association, and was its president in
1969. Dick and John sold the business in 1970 and Dick joined the Public Service
Company, thus beginning 22 years there as a Consumer Services executive; he retired in 1993. Over those years, Dick was a member of the Red Cross, United
Way and Boulder Philharmonic boards. He is a longtime member of the Boulder
Rotary Club and has just completed a two-year post as president of the Boulder
County Corral of Westerners.
Jane became interested in Colorado history and developed a career as a
writer, beginning as a columnist with the Focus section of the Sunday Camera
where she wrote “Over the Shoulder” for eleven years. She then joined Sybil
Downing and together they produced 10 children’s fiction books in the Colorado
Heritage series and two books on Women of the West. Also with Sybil, she wrote
a biography of Mary Roberts Rinehart for young adults. On her own, she produced three books for adults: two were illustrated coffee table books, “76 Historic Homes in Colorado” and “Historic Homes of Boulder County”, and the other is
a semi-fictional biography of Mari Sandoz, a well-known writer about the American West.
Dick and Jane have enjoyed traveling together to Europe, however Dick
dislikes flying. Jane is more adventurous. In 2000, she visited China and Korea
and had the unusual experience of visiting Pyongyang in North Korea.
As one might expect, they have been active members of Historic Boulder.
They have also enjoyed hiking, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Currently
they are enjoying the amenities here at Frasier where they are about to celebrate
their 61st wedding anniversary. They have two sons, one in Berthoud and the other in Greeley, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Pete Palmer
BILL AND LOUISE BRADLEY
Bill and Louise are one of those rare couples who
both grew up in the same communities in which they
were born. Louise was raised on a farm in northern
Ohio, not far from Oberlin, that had been in her family since 1832 when her ancestors emigrated from
Connecticut; Bill was raised in an academic family
in Madison, Wisconsin.
Louise went to a 2-room elementary school – grades
1-4 downstairs; grades 5-8 upstairs and there were a
total of 60 students in her high school. Despite the
country schooling, Louise and her parents all graduated from Oberlin. Louise majored in Psychology and received her BA in 1954. She then went on to Cornell on
a Ford Foundation Grant to obtain a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education.
For three years she taught 5th grade in Ithaca, NY, during which she also took up
skiing and met Ric Bradley. When she moved to Boulder to teach 3 rd grade, Ric
suggested that she look up his brother Bill at the University of Colorado. They hit
it off and were married in 1958. Their daughter now lives in Atlanta, and their
son has remained in Boulder; an older daughter by Bill’s first marriage lives in
Nashville.
Louise has been deeply involved in the Boulder community, volunteering at
various times with the League of Women Voters, Boulder Day Nursery, PLAN
Boulder, and the Boulder Arts Commission. While accompanying Bill on his
Australian sabbatical in 1973-74 she learned the skills of spinning and weaving.
Upon her return she became an active member of the Handweavers Guild in Boulder, taught her spinning and weaving skills to many Boulderites, and published
multiple articles and designs in HANDWOVEN magazine. Her expert
knowledge is also now utilized at Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in the Table Mesa
shopping center where she works part-time. Louise has been an active skier and
hiker, and a part of the Wednesday Ladies Hiking and Skiing Group for the past
38 years. Since 2003, she has been a volunteer in the Senior Peer Counseling program at the West Boulder Senior Center. There she applies her formidable people
skills and meets weekly to assist clients along with a supervisor.
Bill was a city boy, although he skied and participated in other outdoor activities. He graduated from high school in 1942 and was drafted into the Army in
1943 where his outdoor skills qualified him for assignment to the 10th Mountain
Infantry Division at Camp Hale, Colorado. He left the division in 1944 to attend
Officers Training School in Georgia, after which he joined a group of soldiers
bound for northern Europe aboard the British ship “Aquitania”. During the
passage the radio reported the German progress in the Battle of the Bulge, cluing
the troops as to where they were heading. He reached the front in early 1945 and
joined the 7th Armored Infantry Division in time to help eliminate the Bulge.
Thereafter, fighting was less intense. When the war ended he stayed for a year in
the Army of Occupation where he was a member of one of the Army ski teams.
Bill was discharged in 1946 but remained in the inactive reserves He entered the University of Wisconsin that year and declared a major in Geology.
During his senior year in 1950 he contracted polio and lost the use of his right leg.
Polio saved him, however, from being recalled to active duty to fight in Korea.
Despite missing a year of school, the University decided he had all the necessary
courses for a degree and graduated him in 1951 while he was still convalescing.
That fall he started a degree program at Stanford University, ultimately receiving
a PhD in geology in 1955. The University of Colorado hired him that fall, beginning his 34-year career which ended in retirement in 1989. Actually, his career
extended another 10 years because Cloud Ridge Naturalists, an outdoor educational organization, hired him to be geologist on rafting trips down the Yampa,
Green and San Juan Rivers in Colorado and Utah.
Bill and Louise spent sabbatical years in Austin, TX (1965-66), Adelaide,
South Australia (1974-75) and Aberystwyth, Wales (1982-83). For many years,
they were also volunteer drivers for Meals-on Wheels in Boulder. Now they are
settling in to enjoy the relaxing environment of FMRC.
Pete Palmer
JANE CRABTREE
When you walk into Jane’s apartment, you immediately see evidence of her international travel
and her interest in the arts, not only as an appreciator but also as a producer of both arts and
crafts. There are numerous paintings in progress
in various media, pottery pieces, and felted objects in addition to her sizeable collection of precious objects collected in her overseas assignments. You’ll be greeted with a mini-tour of this
array if you should call on her.
Jane was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago. She
was one of four children. One sister now lives in California, another in Boulder, and her brother lives in Illinois. She graduated from Monmouth College
(in Illinois) and later earned an M.Ed. degree at Northwestern University, further qualifying her to enter one of the few professions then being urged upon
college women: teaching. She taught second grade for nine years, five of which
were spent on military bases in Okinawa, Japan, and Germany.
When she returned from overseas, she decided to try a second career and
earned an M.B.A. at Boston College in computers and accounting. She stayed
in corporate life with Armstrong World Industries for twelve years. It was now
time for a third career. Jane went to Temple University and earned a Ph.D. in
International Business and Human Resources, which eventuated in her teaching at colleges in Iowa and Illinois. As part of her contract with the University
of Dubuque she was required to teach three courses a year in their MBA program in Southeast Asia.
Among her most satisfying overseas experiences was her stint in Kyushu,
Japan because she had three Japanese friends there who made it possible for her
to gain privileged entry into Japanese life and culture in a way not usually permitted to foreigners. Other locations also offered benefits, but none so personally enriching as Kyushu. She learned whitewater rafting in the jungles of Malaysia, skiing in Germany and Austria, and sailing in Germany. In between she
managed to earn a private pilot’s license!
Of all her many pursuits, Jane finds singing the most rewarding. She currently sings in the First Presbyterian Chancel Choir and the Rocky Mountain
Chorale. In the past, she has participated in five concert tours, one that included a concert in Carnegie Hall and another in Nuremberg, Germany.
Jane came to Boulder in 2011 and lived with her sister for a year until an
apartment came up for her at Frasier. Here in Boulder she volunteers with the
Red Cross and teaches driver safety for AARP. Jane, you have so much talent
and experience to share, we are grateful that you chose Frasier to be your permanent home. Welcome!
Trisha Judd
JOAN DE GRAAF
Joan grew up near Sandy, Oregon on a wholesale
flower-bulb farm. She is the daughter of a Dutch
father sent to Oregon by his generations-long bulb
-raising family to manage an overseas branch, and
an accomplished mother, daughter of a Nobel
Prize nominee, who worked as a newspaper reporter in New York and Paris until she became a
homemaker and president of the Portland Junior
Symphony.
Joan attended grade school near Portland
and then the Putney School in Putney, Vermont. There, in addition to her academic classes, she created silver jewelry, played the oboe, skied and rode horses. She
holds a number of degrees: a BA in History and Medical Sciences from UCLA; a
BSc in Biology from the University of London, UK; an MA in Deaf Education
from New York University; and an MLS in Library Science from the University
of Maryland. She had hoped to become a doctor but the medical schools resisted
accepting women at that time. Even more challenging than the academic degrees
were her nautical certification achievements: British Yachtmaster, both Offshore
and Ocean; and the U.S. Coast Guard “Master’s License, 50 tons”.
Joan’s professional activities demonstrate her amazing versatility and adventuresome spirit. She worked in medical research in Los Angeles and then in
Geneva as Technical Officer, mostly editor and writer, for the World Health Organization. Moving to London to study, she worked for various publishers of
medical, science and health encyclopedias as editor for life sciences, health and
related fields, and as Consulting Editor at WHO. By then she was losing her hearing and returned to the U.S. to study to become a teacher of the deaf. One year of
teaching junior high school in New York City convinced her this was a mistake.
Because editorial jobs were hard to find and she could no longer use the telephone, she ran away to sea and spent about 10 years taking boats as navigator or
skipper between New England and the Caribbean, sailing around the Caribbean
with her partner, Frank Schreider, explorer, cinematographer and writer; and living on their boat while teaching sailing and repairing boats. She actually lived on
her own boat for about 10 years.
Settling in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, she served as a hospital librarian and then worked for the Virgin Islands Department of Natural Resources as a
planner attempting to save the last natural beaches from development. She returned to the mainland to work at the National Library of Medicine as a Medline
indexer and editor. On retirement, she taught skiing in Pennsylvania and later at
Copper Mountain after moving to Silverthorne, Colorado.
Her hobbies and interests include: reading, classical music, outdoor sports,
social justice, arts and architecture, handyman skills, jewelry making, navigation
and oceanography, bridge and languages, especially French, Russian and Spanish
(although she admits to being no longer fluent in any of these despite studying
Spanish in several Central American countries). She loves to learn. Before moving to Boulder from the Colorado mountains, she took classes at Colorado Mountain College and became certified and licensed in Colorado as a nurse’s aide and
an emergency medical technician. Many of these activities became possible when
two cochlear implants improved her hearing.
Perhaps Joan would be best characterized as a “Renaissance Woman”. Her
life experiences, varied interests and volunteer service in many areas and locations testify to her generous spirit of giving of herself and her skills. She looks
forward to continuing to volunteer in Boulder and at Frasier Meadows. Her one
regret about her new life at Frasier is that her second-floor apartment does not
permit her to have a dog. She misses the loving canine companions who accompanied her on her many travels.
Frasier is indeed fortunate that this remarkable, lively and interesting lady
has chosen to live in our midst.
Anne Fisher
MARY DICKERSON
Mary hails from Middletown, Ohio, a town of 40,000
situated between Cincinnati and Dayton. After five
years in Middletown, her father, who was in the steel
business, was transferred to Ashland, Ky., then to
Youngstown, Ohio.
When Mary was ten, her mother died suddenly, leaving behind five children: four boys and Mary.
She credits her father with actively preventing her
from assuming the all-too-natural female role (in the
“good old days”) of willing servant to five males.
Eventually Mary’s father took a position with Republic Steel in Alabama. Mary
was sent to boarding school in Cincinnati at Mt. St. Joseph School, where she
continued her schooling into her college years. It was at this juncture that Mary
met the man to whom she would be married for 33 years. The marriage produced
five children: two girls, both of whom now live in Boulder and were the tireless
instigators of her move to Boulder; a son and a daughter who live in Middletown
and run a family business, and a son in Dayton, Ohio.
An especially rewarding experience for Mary during the many challenging
years of raising five children took place at the high school the kids were attending. Mary was a frequent volunteer, particularly in the high school library where
she became acquainted not only with lots of students, but also with faculty. When
Title Nine went into effect, Mary was hired as an assistant to the school counselor,
managing the logistics of that very busy office. The job demanded flexibility,
warmth and tact…..qualities Mary has in abundance.
After her marriage ended, Mary left Cincinnati to join a group of lay volunteers in a crisis shelter for battered women in Cleveland. This was a total immersion experience and proved to be a turning point in her life. After 33 years of being “mistress of the house,” Mary found herself living communally in a dormitory
with five women, a real challenge to her adaptability. When her two-year contract
of rewarding work with the shelter expired, she went to work as head of volunteer
services, first at St. John’s Hospital, then at St. Luke’s, both in Cleveland. Her
volunteer work had qualified her to be hired for these responsible jobs, even
though she had had little previous experience in the world of paid employment
(her long-term unpaid employment---- her experience raising five children to be
competent, responsible adults didn’t count). Mary returned to Cincinnati after ten
years in Cleveland. Her work experience qualified her to work for the Jewish
Hospital and then to be hired by Proctor and Gamble, where she stayed until her
retirement.
She has used her retirement years well. She thinks she has attended at least
fifteen Elderhostels, and every summer she has spent a week at the original Chautauqua in Chautauqua, New York. She has loved music since childhood, and re-
luctantly admitted to having played the cello in the school orchestra and to having
played the piano as a girl. In addition to being with her family, one of Mary’s
great pleasures is attending classical music events. She also loves movies, bridge,
and reading, and clearly enjoys meeting and getting to know people. She has indulged in all of the above pleasures with observable enthusiasm since moving into
Frasier last March. Welcome, Mary. We are glad you are here!
Trish Judd
WALTER DUNCAN
Walt was born in Cincinnati, but grew up in Winchester, VA. He graduated from Virginia Tech in
Blacksburg in 1951, with a BS degree in Civil Engineering. While there, he lettered in wrestling,
which gave him membership in the Monogram
Club, and he was active in the Corps of Cadets.
This led to a commission, after graduation, in the
U.S. Army Engineers as a Second Lieutenant, and
an assignment as a construction platoon leader during the Korean war. After the war he stayed in the
Army Reserves where he worked his way up to
Lieutenant Colonel before retiring.
After his active duty, he spent 1953 and 1954 in the Yellowstone District of
the Bureau of Reclamation where he designed irrigation and canal systems.
While there, Mary-Ruth Yow, a recent graduate of Appalachian State College in
Virginia noticed the Virginia license plates on his new car and arranged to meet
her fellow Virginian. They were married in the summer of 1954.
Shortly afterward, he was offered a job as a hydrologist with the Corps of
Engineers on the design and construction of the Central and Southern Florida
Flood Control Project. After two years, during which time he and Mary-Ruth
found Florida’s heat unbearable, Walt applied for, and got, a job with the Walla
Walla District (Washington) Corps of Engineers. He spent 5 years there, during
which time their daughter, Sara, was born.
Walt’s boss was transferred to Anchorage, AK in 1961 and asked Walt to
come along and head up the Hydrology Section. He and his family were there for
the great 1964 earthquake. Then, in 1970, Walt accepted a position as head of the
Reservoir Regulation Section in the Chief of Engineers Office in Washington,
D.C. During most of that time he was Secretary for the Columbia River Permanent Engineering Board (Canada and the U.S.)
While there, he went to night school at George Mason University and received a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education in 1978. He also served on the
Selection Committee of the American Geophysical Union to produce a publication on Russian hydrology, and, for 6 years, on the Commission on Hydrology of
the World Meteorological Organization. In 1978 Walt left the Corp. of Engineers
to go work for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs).
Shortly after getting his education degree, Walt and Mary-Ruth were contacted by the BIA with a request that they go to Little Diomede Island and teach in
the BIA school there. This was an elementary school with a total of 30 to 36 Innuit children. The 2-square mile island lies in the middle of a 40-mile wide strait
that separates the Seward Peninsula of Alaska from Siberia and can be reached
only by boat until the ocean freezes over in winter. Mary-Ruth taught grades one
through three, and Walt handled four through eight. She taught language arts and
music curriculum and Walt focused on science, math and physical education. He
also coached the wrestling team and led them to medals in several Alaskan state
wrestling meets. Three different years, the students raised enough money to fund
a trip for the 7th and 8th graders to Washington, D.C.
The island was to Walt an ideal place to live -- small and un-crowded -- and
he could get to know his students personally. Building the school and teaching on
the island were “probably the best 6 years of my life” he says. When the state of
Alaska took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs schools in 1984, Walt was again involuntarily “retired” from Government service.
Between 1984 and 1993, Mary-Ruth arranged for two different tours as
school librarian at U.S. military bases in Heidelberg and Frankfurt, Germany.
They returned to the U.S. only in 1989 and 1990 to care for Walt’s step-mother in
Fairfax, VA. During their time in Germany, Walt became a Haus Herr. At the end
of the second tour in Germany, they came back to Falls Church,VA where they
lived until they moved to Longmont, and later Boulder, in 1998. While in Virginia, Walt was an aide for learning-disabled children in the Fairfax County school
system. In Colorado, he helped children in Boulder’s Columbine elementary
school learn how to use computers.
After retirement, Walt and Mary-Ruth enjoyed traveling, especially Elderhostel tours. Walt also took up restoration of railroad cars as a hobby. He goes to
New Mexico each summer to work on the old cars. He also collects coins and
stamps. Mary-Ruth died in January, 2013.and Walt moved into Frasier Meadows
three months later.
Daughter Sara works in Boulder and her daughter, Walt’s granddaughter,
has graduated from the California College of Arts as a painter. His grandson
graduated from the University of Colorado in 2013, and is now in Argentina
learning Spanish.
An active supporter of Virginia Tech, Walt has been elected to the school’s
Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni and has established two Hokie
scholarships in civil engineering and wrestling at his old school.
Nancy Tilley
ROBERT DEAN HARRINGTON
Bob was born in the small town of Philip, South Dakota, not far from the
badlands where his Boy Scout troop camped during the summers and played basketball with the Indian kids on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
By the time he was ready for high school, the family moved to Sydney, Nebraska where he remained until the day after he graduated. Then he boarded a
train for Army boot camp. After training on Army tanks, he was shipped to Korea
where the U.S. Army was assisting in moving the Japanese out of the area. He
was assigned to military police and criminal investigation. We were still at war
with Japan officially as the armistice had not yet been signed.
After a year and a half of Army life, he had completed his enlistment and he
headed for the University of Colorado, completing his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics in 1951 and Masters in Physics in 1952. During this period he
met a co-ed, Eilene Smathers, who was a regular at the boarding house he frequented. They were married in August, 1950.
In 1952, there were no jobs for physicists in the Boulder area, so Bob took
a job with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. A few years later
he heard that the National Bureau of Standards was planning to move to Boulder,
so he took a position with them, moving back to Boulder with them in 1954 and
remaining with them until he took early retirement in 1988.
He moved into Frasier Meadows in October, 2000, at which time his wife
was a patient in a local nursing home. He has a son in Littleton, CO and a
daughter in Orono, Maine.
Irma Galusha
BETTY (ELIZABETH) HILL
1984.
I was born and raised in Oak Park, IL., a village
eight miles west of central Chicago and the home
of the Frank Lloyd Wright studio and birthplace
of Earnest Hemingway. My father worked as a
statistician with A T & T. My mother was a dress
maker, designer and artist.
I received my nurse’s training from 194245 at the Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago. My
nursing fields were, psychiatric care especially
with veterans, home health care, surgical postoperative and doctor’s office nurse. I retired in
I enjoyed my career while raising three children--Nancy, the eldest, is the
Dean and Library Director at the University of Denver-- David, two years younger, a pharmacist, now retired back in Illinois--Peggy, nine years younger than Nancy, is Chief Operating Officer of the Colorado Behavioral Health Council. Nancy
and Peggy now live in Louisville and Denver, Colorado.
I have spent the last 64 years in Naperville, IL--which is now known as the
dining capital of the western suburbs of Chicago. Naperville is also the fifth largest
city in Illinois.
My husband was a high school/college physics teacher. We traveled extensively, taking long domestic driving trips with the family while we were working,
and overseas after we both retired. He died in 2006 after a five year struggle with
Parkinson’s disease complicated by Alzheimer's disease. We were married for 58
years.
I spent nine years as a volunteer with the Community Radio Watch, the Naperville Police department’s efforts at crime prevention. We patrolled local police
districts in our own vehicles during the three-hour evening watch time. More recently I aided at the Loaves and Fishes food bank and also delivered books for the
local library to home-bound patrons.
Within my own 240 unit condominium complex, I served as an elected director on the Board. I was editor of the Meanderings, a bi-monthly newsletter. I
researched and provided the films for the monthly Movie Night, helped with transportation for the Lunch Bunch, was a member of the book club and a lively discussion group. There were nights for dominoes, cards and word games. I also bowled
with a local league. I enjoyed season tickets to a small amateur theater group, to the
DuPage County Symphony Orchestra, to Drury Lane and the Paramount theaters,
all in the western suburbs.
Photography and sculpture are my art interests. When sitting at home, I
have a book or e-reader in hand, preferring mystery, suspense and adventure yarns,
but also the occasional heart-warmer.
Betty Hill
TRISH JUDD
Trish Judd is a fascinating and vivacious woman
who has already begun to add a great deal to the
Frasier community. She was born and raised on
the north side of Chicago and later moved to a
northern suburb where she graduated from New
Trier High School. From there she went on to
Grinnell College where she majored in English
and later earned a graduate degree at North Texas University. She taught college English in several locations for many years after her sons were
grown.
Trish married soon after graduation from Grinnell and had three sons. David now lives in Evansville (but plans to retire to Ann Arbor MI); Jeffrey lives in
Leakey, TX and Angel Fire, N.M., and Gregory lives in Dallas. These sons have
produced seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She tries to visit
the various families once or twice each year. Trish is also very close to Aleta, her
niece who lives in Boulder.
Trish participated in interesting events along the way. When living in Dallas, her church women’s group heard a talk about abortion which informed the
women that the only abortion services available in Texas were illegal, dangerous,
and resulted in many unnecessary deaths. The group decided to lobby the Texas
legislature to allow safer, legal procedures but they found that their efforts had no
effect on that male -dominated body. They saw that changing abortion laws
through legislative action would take decades, if not centuries. It was at this point
that they began to think in terms of a lawsuit. The eventual outcome of this modest endeavor was the Roe v Wade case which, as we all know, went all the way to
the Supreme Court. Two young female lawyers, both recent graduates of UT Law
School, worked with the women’s group from the beginning. One of the two argued the case before that august body and won. As Trish says, one never knows
what will come out of our efforts.
She was also active in the civil rights movement while she lived in Dallas. She witnessed the end of legal segregation and worked for integration – a
struggle that continues to this day. She was in Dallas when President Kennedy
was killed, a traumatic experience for us all and especially for those living in Dallas. Trish has also been involved in population and environmental issues, believing that the two are inextricably connected.
Trish’s second marriage was to a Unitarian-Universalist minister, the Reverend Alfred Judd. After their marriage he served two congregations in Texas after which they retired to Santa Fe NM. In Santa Fe Trish was one of the founding
members of Renesan, a lifelong learning group, a group that offered bargainpriced classes to seniors on world affairs, history, literature, science, music and
art, etc. It was a kind of quasi liberal arts college for seniors. The classes were
initially organized under the umbrella of the College of Santa Fe and held on that
campus. The membership of Renesan started with 35 members but has since
grown to over 750 and is still growing strong. . Clearly Trish knows how to start
small and make a big impact.
Welcome, Trish!
Ellen Cotts
JOYCE LEIPER
Meet a Colorado native! Joyce Leiper was born in
Gypsum, Colorado, on the Western Slope. She enjoyed growing up in a small town, and she graduated from high school as valedictorian of her class of
thirteen students.
Joyce graduated from Mesa Junior College in
Grand Junction and became engaged to Merle Ross.
World War II interfered with their plans, though, as
Merle joined the armed forces and was stationed in
Europe. He was a prisoner of war in Germany for
some time, but he came home safely; and the couple married in 1945.
Joyce worked for an insurance company in Grand Junction, then was head
secretary at Mesa Junior College. Merle got the opportunity to attend CU in
Boulder, so they moved here for two years -- Joyce's introduction to Boulder. After two years, while Merle was teaching high school in Gillette, Wyoming, the
couple moved to Boulder in 1950. Merle was an administrator for the March of
Dimes in Denver, but Joyce preferred to live in the smaller town of Boulder. In
1953 they built a house on 19th Street in Boulder, and that is where Joyce lived
until she moved to Frasier Meadows in November, 2012.
Joyce and Merle had three children, Janet, Barry, and Becky. The couple
divorced, and Joyce began a new phase in her life. Some Boulder friends convinced her to join them at the Boulder Elks Club for dinner and dancing one evening, and they introduced her to Wallace Leiper. "He is a very good dancer," they
promised, and they turned out to be a very good match! They married not long
after. Joyce had been working as the secretary at Boulder Valley Vocational and
Technical School for many years, but she left that behind to enjoy years of travel
with Wallace. Scotland, Spain, Mexico, and Australia were some favorite destinations.
Joyce has a sister living here in Boulder, and two of her children, Janet
Waide and Barry Ross also live close by. With her combined families, Joyce now
has eight grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren! She enjoys time with
family and also playing bridge.
Janet Klemperer
FRED AND PATTY ROECKER
Fred and Patty Roecker moved to Frasier Meadows in July 2012 from their home in Boulder
where they had lived for the past 50 years! They
love it here and don’t miss the house one bit.
Fred was born in Evanston IL and grew up
in Park Ridge IL. Patty was born in Warsaw IN
but moved to Chicago at the age of three when her
father entered art school in Chicago. Her dad later
worked for the Chicago Daily News and subsequently started his own ad agency. Patty’s family
later moved to Park Ridge and Patty and Fred met at Maine High School there.
After high school, Fred went into the army and served with the 104th Infantry Division in Europe. Patty attended Whitworth College in Brookhaven MS
where she received an Associate Degree in Art and then went on to the Chicago
Academy of Fine Arts for one year.
Upon discharge from the army in 1946 Fred went to the University of Illinois where he received a degree in accounting. While attending U of I, Fred and
Patty were married and Patty received her PHT (putting hubby through) degree.
She retouched photos for a large photo studio and worked for the theatre department.
Upon graduation Fred worked for The Pure Oil Co, in Chicago, Olney, IL,
Billings, MT and then Denver, CO. They especially enjoyed their seven-year
stay in Billings, a location Patty and Fred enjoyed very much. However, when the
firm was up for sale and they wanted Fred to move back to Chicago, he left the
company and became Comptroller for Western Nuclear Inc. in Denver. After a
time Fred and Patty moved once again when he became the Comptroller and then
Director of Administration for NCAR here in Boulder. When he took that position, NCAR had just 17 employees but it grew to over 700 within 10 years. Fred
was also in charge of construction of the Mesa laboratory here in Boulder, a task
which gave him great satisfaction. At the end of his career, Fred became the CFO
of Polfam Ltd, a private investment firm.
Besides raising five children and getting everyone going in the right direction, Patty worked for the Boulder Valley School District as a resident artist and
teaching assistant , working primarily with special ed students. In retirement she
has continued her special interest in water color, attended work shops and has
been involved in Boulder art groups. She has also been active in the Kid’s Hope
program mentoring special needs children and the Doorways English-as-a-Second
language program assisting foreign student wives. Patty has already given a
showing of her paintings in our own Frasier Meadows Art Gallery. Fred works
with her by framing her lovely scenes.
As a retiree, Fred has done tax work for the AARP, assisted the Small Business Administration by counseling start-ups, served as an Elder of the Presbyterian church, worked for the Legal Aid Society and served as an Arbitrator for the
NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers).
Patty and Fred’s 5 children include Margaret who lives in Broomfield;
twins Ann and David who both live in Denver; Jim, now in Belleview WA; and
Sarah, now in Lawrence KS. The family also includes ten grandchildren and six
great grandchildren.
We are greatly enriched to have Fred and Patty in our community.
Ellen Cotts
KYI KYI TIN
Kyi Kyi Tin was born in Pyapon, Burma, situated in the Irrawaddy River Delta. She was
the fifth of seven children. She grew up in
Rangoon, where her father was the headmaster of a middle school. Education was obviously very important to the family, because all
seven children went on to higher education
and careers in science. Kyi Kyi earned a B.S.
in chemistry at Rangoon University. She
worked as an instructor in the Chemistry Department of a medical school after she graduated.
Kyi Kyi met Myint Tin, who was a friend of her brother-in-law, and they
married in 1968. Myint was an economist, who received a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. While they lived in Rangoon, two children were born:
daughter Lwin Lwin in 1970 and Kyaw in 1972.
The family began many years of life in Africa in 1979, when Myint was
asked to be the chief technical advisor for the United Nations in Ethiopia. They
lived there for three years, then moved to Zimbabwe for five years, still doing
United Nations work. In 1989 Myint was posted to Sierra Leone. The children
by that time were in school in London. Myint fell seriously ill in 1993 and was
sent to London for hospital treatment. Tragically, he passed away after only three
weeks there, and Kyi Kyi had to begin a new stage in her life. She had two sisters
in the U.S., so in 1994 Kyi Kyi moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to be with them.
Soon a job opportunity came along to work as a chemist in Atlanta, Georgia, with her sister and brother-in-law, so Kyi Kyi moved there. For several years
she did radioactivity detection at NTS. Her son Kyaw has lived in Boulder since
1996, and Kyi Kyi moved here in 2012 to be near him. Her daughter Lwin Lwin
has remained in England, where she is a cardiologist in Leeds.
Kyi Kyi loves to cook, and she is taking yoga classes. Boulder is a big
change from life in Atlanta, but Kyi Kyi is finding Frasier Meadows a good place
to live.
Janet Klemperer
JOHN AND FAY TRACY
When John Tracy returned to his home town of Fort
Dodge, Iowa, while on fall break from college in
1953, he decided to attend a Friday night dance at the
Catholic parish’s gymnasium—one of the few places
where young people could socialize with parental approval. During a mixer called a “trap dance” John and
Fay, a high school senior, ended up dancing together
(they still argue about who chose who). Their relationship blossomed quickly, and they were married
less than two years later after Fay completed her first
semester at Valparaiso University in Indiana.
They began their life together in Omaha, where John was a senior in accounting at Creighton University. After graduating and passing his CPA examination in May 1956 he was hired by the Arthur Young accounting firm, which assigned him to its Kansas City office. The idea of pursuing an academic career was
germinating in his mind, however, and in 1958 he and Fay and the first two of
what would eventually be five children headed for the University of Wisconsin in
Madison for John to pursue graduate studies. After receiving his Ph.D. he joined
the faculty at the University of California in Berkeley in 1961. Four years later he
was lured to the University of Colorado, where he taught for 35 years, retiring in
2000. He chaired the Accounting Department on and off for 13 of those years, and
the office of the incumbent chair is now named after him.
John has also pursued a sideline career as author of highly successful books
on accounting. One of them, How to Read a Financial Report, was first published
in 1980 and is now being revised for the eighth time, with the Tracy’s youngest
son Tage (pronounced “Tahg”) now listed as co-author. It has been translated into
several foreign languages, including Chinese, and over 400,000 copies have been
sold. Another of his books, A ccounting for Dummies, was first published in 1997
and is now in its fifth edition.
Fay too has a professional connection to CU, having served in administrative positions for more than 20 years in the Natural Hazards Center, which operates under a grant from the National Science Foundation (which in turn gets funding from several other federal agencies, including FEMA). The Center’s mission
is to advance and communicate knowledge on hazards mitigation and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. She continued her education at CU during
those years, and in 1978 graduated with a B.A. degree in anthropology.
During their time at CU the Tracys hosted numerous foreign exchange students, and they continue to keep in touch with several of them.
John’s prominence in the accounting world is not his first brush with national notice. He was the oldest of nine children in a family that came to the attention of the editors of The Ladies Home Journal, who spotlighted them in the June
1951 issue. John’s father was a franchisee for Remington Rand, and the company
took advantage of this publicity to mount its own public relations campaign revolving around them as an exemplary family. That involved an expense-paid trip
to New York City, radio interviews, and photo shoots, including some with Brooklyn Dodger greats Gil Hodges and Pee Wee Reese.
In retirement John continues to hang out two or three days a week in the
CU Business College, which has a small office for former faculty members to
share, and he walks and exercises there with friends. He’s also a photography enthusiast and is finding a challenge in getting acquainted with the advanced features of a new Leica digital camera. Another long-standing hobby is betting on
greyhound races. Colorado no longer has dog racing so he doesn’t watch the dogs
run any more, but he can place bets on races elsewhere at an off-track facility in
Denver. When he was asked whether the math skills that come with being an accountant help, it was hard to tell if he had tongue in cheek in replying that dog
racing results are totally unpredictable, so he just picks random numbers.
The Tracys are pleased to have two of their five children and four of their
12 grandchildren still living in Colorado. The others are scattered in California,
Idaho, and Charleston, S.C.
Phil Waggener
PAT AND BOB TROELTZSCH
Pat was raised on a cattle ranch 40 miles from
Gordon, Nebraska and Bob grew up in Denver.
Pat received an MA in English as a Second Language (ESL) from CU-Denver, and Bob got a degree in Chemical Engineering from CU Boulder
followed by an MBA. His first job was in Baton
Rouge in a chemical plant with Esso Standard
Oil, but he soon moved to Boulder and worked
for Rocky Flats.
Pat and Bob both had previous marriages
— each of them having three children. They met in a singles group in Boulder
and were married here. Between them they have seven granddaughters and one
grandson.
Pat has volunteered for years as an ESL teacher at the YES school at First
Congregational Church and at the Doorways English School at the First Presbyterian Church. She is also a member of the Boulder Valley Rotary Club where she
has earned the Paul Harris Award.
Pat’s interests have always centered around flowers and she now has a
flower plot near the Assisted Living building. In addition, she volunteers in the
Green Room. Her second interest is music and she is a member of the Jubilate
Sacred Singers, an a capella singing chorus, plus her Mountain View Methodist
Church choir.
Finally, she helps send several Ugandan refugee students to school. Pat has
visited them several times and always brings them donated vegetable seeds, laptops from her Rotary club, tennis shoes, vitamins, toothpaste, and much more.
Nearly every day the students e-mail about their school progress plus joys and difficulties in their lives. In return, Pat tries to give them encouragement and describes her life in a mountain climate while they write about their African climate.
Bob was on the Boulder County Planning Commission for 13 years and
volunteered for United Way. He also was involved for many years with Boy
Scouts, Indian Guides, and Junior Achievement. Bob and Pat moved into Frasier
Meadows when Bob developed severe vision and back problems. He has listened
to hundreds of books on a myriad of subjects. In the past he enjoyed trout fishing,
hiking, skiing, and canoeing. He is a consummate Rockies supporter! One of his
favorite things in Boulder is the World Affairs Conference.
Jessma Blockwick
JIM AND NURIT WOLF
I, Jim (James B.) Wolf, came to Colorado in September 1968 as an Assistant Professor of History at the
then Denver Center of the University of Colorado.
Over the years that campus, now The University of
Colorado, Denver, blossomed into a major teaching
and research institution, and I am proud to be considered one of the “founding fathers.” As well as teaching and publishing on British Empire, African and
Irish history I became very active in faculty governance, as chair of the Denver Faculty Assembly, chair
of the University-wide Faculty Council and president of the Retired Faculty Association. For my work for the department in developing innovative classes and for
my contributions to the University as a whole, I have received several awards, the
most gratifying being the President’s first University Service Award and a Regent’s University Medal.
I was born in Boston, was a teen-ager in Chicago, received a B.A. from
Oberlin College, and worked for CBS radio in San Francisco and a small advertising agency in Palo Alto. Between those two jobs, I took off for a half a year
working on a kibbutz in Israel in 1959 followed by another six months in Hillversum, Holland. In 1963 I earned an M.A. in Social Science at (then) San Francisco
State College and in 1968 a Ph.D. in History from U.C.L.A.. In between I taught
a year in the history department at the University of California, Davis, after I married Nurit, who was working in a biology laboratory for two years there. Our oldest son, Alex, was born in Sacramento, but celebrated his first birthday in Boulder; our second son, Ethan, is a native born Boulderite.
My primary avocation, which I once thought would be my life’s vocation,
is theater. At Oberlin I was active in theater and Gilbert and Sullivan productions,
and was in the first year of Oberlin’s G & S summer theater at Cape Cod. After
Oberlin and a year at the Goodman Theater school in Chicago, I did summer stock
in southern Ohio. Little theater in Palo Alto took much of my time before I returned to graduate school. In Boulder my two most memorable performances
were Tevya in “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Nomad Theater, and Willie Loman in
“Death of a Salesman” on the Boulder campus. Following retirement I have acted
and directed at the Upstart Crow and VIVA.
Giving back to the community, I have served on the Boulder Arts Commission, the Boulder County SCFD commission, chair of the former Hemlock Society and chair of the Town and Gown organization. Nurit and I agree that the best
decision we ever made was to accept the job at the University of Colorado and
live in Boulder; our small cabin in Pinecliffe is the icing on the cake for me, a retreat that is less than an hour away. Boulder and Colorado were terrific places to
bring up our two sons, both of which live close by with their families . And to top
it all off, we are delighted to be living in Frasier Meadows.
I, Nurit Wolf, was born in 1938 under British mandate Palestine ( my maiden name was Stahl.). My Father left Germany in 1933, after attending a rally with
Hitler and realizing that as a Jew it was not safe to stay in Germany. With a PhD
in agronomy he ended up in Palestine. My mother emigrated to Palestine in 1936,
following her two older brothers. My parents met in Palestine.
My parents lived on a small street, “Meged” at the edge of the town, Pardess Hanna. My father built his house shortly after arriving and his mother whose
husband died in 1929 joined him shortly after. My father’s older brother, wife and
two children emigrated to the US and lived in NYC. My parents’ income was
from a citrus grove that my father planted when he first arrived and other agriculture. My mother’s parents were lucky to get out of Germany in 1939, but lost
everything they had.
My first language was German, the spoken language at home, and I learned
Hebrew when I started to attend Nursery school. I was exposed to classical music
from a very early age, listening to records and live music. My father played cello,
including chamber music and my mother and both grand mothers played piano. I
attended the only elementary school in town which was located on the other side
of town. We had to walk to school, since there was not a school bus and most people did not own cars. In 1948 when I was 9, the state of Israel was voted by the
UN. There were celebrations in the town center, but we knew that war will break
out the next day, which was known as the War of Independence. Quite a few
young people that I knew were killed some only 16 years old. At the end of the 8
years of elementary school, I got a scholarship to go to high school which was in
Hadera, a town 5 miles away. After H.S, every one had to serve in the army. After
basic training, I served my time in an office.
When I finished my service, I studied Biology at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem. After getting an MSc. I got a job in the lab where I did my research for
my degree, and where I met a professor on sabbatical from Davis, CA, who offered me the opportunity to work for him in Davis for two years. I accepted the
offer, and a year later I met by accident Jim and we got married. My two years in
the US became the rest of my life.
We moved to Boulder in 1968. When our two sons were in school, I got a
job at Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology at CU. I kept up my two main
interests: playing piano and photography, which I started when I was about 8. After retiring I extended my two hobbies and had quite a few exhibits. I also served
on the Boulder Bach Festival Board in it’s early days.
Jim and Nurit Wolf