Courtesy photo
- Occupation: Part-time ski instructor at Ski Cooper
- Hometown: Leadville
- Years in Colorado: 49 years
- Family: Married, three married sons, six grandchildren
- Civic involvement: Leadville City Council member and mayor pro tem; High Riders Snowmobile Club president, 2018-2019; Four Seasons Homeowners Association president; Lake County Airport board of advisors vice chair; Boom Days board of directors vice president; and Community Coffee weekly forum moderator.
In 1966, following my graduation from St. Cloud State
University in Minnesota, I was drafted and served two years in the U.S. Army,
the last year with the 4th Infantry Division near Pleiku, South Vietnam. When I
returned home, I secured a teaching position in Waseca Minnesota, and learned
to ski. I left Minnesota the following school year and taught in Ashland,
Wisconsin, and skied. I arrived in Leadville in fall 1970 because of
Leadville’s proximity to skiing and, for the next three years, taught business
subjects at Lake County High School. In 1973, I served as assistant area manager
at Ski Cooper. As Cooper was a seasonal job at that time, I was hired by the
Climax Molybdenum Mine in springs 1974 and delivered dynamite until fall 1974,
when I was hired by Copper Mountain as a lift mechanic. After two years of
wrenching, I became the director of lift operations and hired, trained and
supervised the lift operators at Copper Mountain. In 1979, I returned to
education by becoming an instructor of business and ski area operations at
Colorado Mountain College in Leadville. Over the next 25 years, I moved from
ski ops and business subjects to become the assistant campus dean. After three years
as the assistant dean, I went back to the classroom as a professor of business.
From there, I became the collegewide faculty development coordinator, then the
founder and director of Central Rockies Leadership (10 years) and Leadership
Leadville (7 years) before finishing out my 25 years at CMC as the campus dean.
Following CMC, I invested in and managed some real estate, served for 5 1/2
years as president and executive director of the National Mining Hall of Fame
and Museum, powder guide on Cooper’s Chicago Ridge and, most recently, a part-time
ski instructor for Ski Cooper.
Priority No. 1: Listen
I don’t pretend to know all there is to know about Colorado
Mountain College, and I will start by listening and asking questions. The
current CMC board is replete with a talented group of trustees who are not only
wonderful representatives for their respective counties but also for all of CMC.
I look forward to learning from some of the best and caring minds in the central
Rockies.
Priority No. 2: Learn
Even if I had come to the board fresh from my 25 years with CMC,
I would still have a lot to learn about being a collaborative trustee and focus
on 1) the responsibilities of CMC President Dr. Carrie Hauser; 2) working to
keep the mill levy below 4.0; 3) joining with the other trustees and the president
to develop and fine tune the CMC strategic plan; 4) learning the essential elements
to monitor relative to the progress of CMC; and 5) how to act in the best
interests of CMC in its entirety.
Priority No. 3: Participate
I will be serving as a trustee for all of CMC yet will be
elected as the Lake County representative. In the early to mid-1980s, when I
was serving as the assistant campus dean on the Leadville campus, the Climax
Mine virtually shut down. The number of classes being taught on the Leadville campus
diminished by more than 50% in large part because of the loss of the mine training
classes. The assessed valuation of Lake County diminished 80% by the end of the
decade. Times were tough for Lake County. Times were equally tough for the
Leadville campus. We lost numerous degree programs, and there was talk of
shutting down the campus. That was a hard time for the Leadville campus, and we
worked hard to regain our status as a viable contributor to CMC. Today, we are
operating in the black, have more people in the dorms than we have had in the
past and are considered an equal partner in the overall scheme of CMC. If the
voters approve the addition of Salida to the CMC district, I can see a synergy
created throughout the Arkansas Valley from Leadville to Salida that would be
similar to the synergy among the CMC sites in the Roaring Fork Valley. It is my
job to help keep us moving forward and to keep making positive contributions to
CMC as a whole.
Thank you to the Summit Daily News for providing me this
opportunity to share my perspective of my service on the CMC Board of Trustees
if validated by the votes of the entire CMC district.
Find more election coverage at SummitDaily.com/election.