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Ann Tobin Wells
January 16, 2005
Ann Tobin Wells, artist, environmentalist, animal lover, friend to many, died Jan. 2, 2005. She was born Nov. 19, 1936. Ann leaves her husband of 34 years, Dr. Joseph (Jay) Wells of Silt, her mother Dorothy Tobin of Bay City, Mich., brothers Patrick Tobin (wife Susan) of Traverse City, Mich., Tim Tobin (wife Jan) of Bay City and John (Jack) Tobin of Santa Monica, Calif.; her nieces Jennifer, Suzannah and Stephanie; nephews Benjamin and Patrick; and her stepsons Daniel Wells (wife Lois Wells) of Bethlehem, Pa., Thomas Wells of Buchanan, Mich., James Wells of Basalt and David Wells (wife Barbara Love) of Austin, Texas. The Wellses' grandchildren include Laura of Baltimore, Jonathan of Stamford, Conn., and Brian and Bill of Basalt.
Ann's father, John (Jake) Tobin, preceded her in death. Ann was an accomplished artist and her many beautiful paintings, sculptures and weavings remain forever as her legacy. She was generous to a fault and will be remembered as a dedicated contributor to her many causes and charities. Her love for life, family, close friends and her beloved cats, dogs and horses sustained her through a difficult battle with leukemia, which she fought vigorously to overcome for the past two years. She will be missed immensely by all those whose lives she touched.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that a contribution be made to Animals Two by Two Educational Foundation, P.O. Box 832, Silt, CO 81652, a nonprofit animal sanctuary and educational foundation.
There are no services scheduled at this time. Rifle Funeral Home is handling all arrangements.
Michael Staley Annan Jr.
January 14, 2005
Michael Staley Annan Jr., known as Bodhi (Bode) died on Dec. 15, 2004, in Tucson, Ariz. He was 40 years old. He was the son of Michael Staley Annan Sr. of Thailand and Dr. and Mrs. Bruce Carlson of Aspen.
Bode was born on July 17, 1964, in Aspen and attended the Aspen schools through the eighth grade. He then attended the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., where he graduated in May 1983. He attended the University of Colorado for a short time. When he was 39 years old, he received a degree in anthropology from the University of Arizona in Tucson and was enrolled there at the time of his death. He was also working on a masters in business at the University of Phoenix.
Bode traveled the world: Europe, India, Thailand, Australia, Kenya, Greece and the Middle East. His real love was Egypt, where he worked on an excavation with professor Dr. Mark Lehner, of Yale University, and his aunt, Gypsy Graves, at the worker's village at the Giza Pyramid Complex, south of Cairo. He also worked with the all-women's Archaeological Research Expedition at the Temple Complex at Karnak, in Luxor, as a helper. He did remote sensing in Finland and in Upper Egypt at Karnak. He also worked at the Graves Museum of Archaeology and History in Dania, Fla. Bode was an avid skier and loved music, playing the piano and singing, surfing, reading, hiking and writing. He was also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
He was active in the Church of Christ Michael in Tucson and very involved in Urantia movement. There was a service held there by pastor Robert Firestine. Many of Bode's friends gave heart-warming testimonials of Bode's love of life, kindness, generosity and spiritual guidance. A second service was held at a funeral home and about 35 people attended.
There was a memorial service held for Bode in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for friends and family to say goodbye. In May some of his ashes will be buried in Mt. Sterling, Ky., where his mother Betje's family are buried. Also, a get-together of friends and family will be held on top of Aspen Mountain in the summer, and as Bode wished, his ashes will be spread there.
Besides his parents, Bode is survived by his beloved sister and brother, Tina Annan and Josh Annan; his beloved aunt, Gypsy Graves, and much- loved cousins, Mary Goodman, George Graves, Louise Graves and Kate Gaskill; uncle, Edward Decker, and many cousins; stepbrothers and stepsisters Brenda Carlson Stockdale, Steve Carlson, Sarah Carlson Rieger, Joseph Carlson, and Anne Carlson Cassidy and their spouses; and numerous nieces and nephews; uncle Jack Annan, aunt Barbara Annan, and stepmother Candy Annan of Aspen.
Bode will be sorely missed by all who knew and loved him. Godspeed, Michael.
Josephine Elizabeth Dunsdon
January 14, 2005
Josephine "Jessie" Elizabeth Dunsdon was born March 22, 1916, to Agnes and Nicholas Garrish in Aspen. She grew up in Aspen on the corner of Cooper and Spring streets at the family homestead. She was raised by her mother and was the youngest of 10 children.
She worked for the Mountain Bell Telephone and Telegraph Co. in Colorado and Texas, and then moved back to Glenwood Springs. She also worked as a PBX operator for the Hotel Colorado. She met and married Marion Dunsdon in Glenwood springs in 1945. He was a rancher and a miner.
After their daughter Michaele, was born, she went to work for First National Bank in Glenwood Springs, where she worked for 31 years.
After retiring from the bank, she volunteered at Valley View Hospital and the senior services program at Colorado Mountain College. She was also an avid member of the Swimmin' Women, who met at the Glenwood Pool and Hot Springs.
She died at Valley View Hospital on Jan. 4, 2005. Her last living brother, Mike Garrish, died last September in Rifle. She is survived by her only daughter, Michaele Dundson, nieces and nephews, and many, many friends.
A memorial was held in Glenwood Springs Monday, Jan. 10. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to a charity of your choice in Jessie's name.
Carmen 'Gene' Flogaus
January 13, 2005
Former Lenado resident Carmen "Gene" Flogaus died at Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs on Jan. 3.
Gene was born in Crane, Mo., on March 28, 1916.
Gene's young life was spent in southwestern Missouri and Clayton, N.M. As a teenager she worked in the resorts at Branson, Mo. She credited this experience with giving her the attributes to become a great cook.
During World War II, Gene worked as a "Rosy the Riveter" in Wichita, Kan. After the war she moved to Colorado, where her sister Maud and brother-in-law Walter Cowen had homesteaded the Milk Creek Ranch near Wolcott.
Gene met her husband of 56 years, Robert Flogaus, in Glenwood Springs in 1948. They were married June 17, 1949. They moved to Lenado, on Woody Creek, where the Flogaus Lumber Co. operated.
As a young bride, Gene cooked for the timber crew at the top of Larkspur Mountain. In the winter she rode a sled down to the main camp, seven miles away, with her dog Skidder and her cat Tommy.
Gene participated in the upbringing of her children, Betty and Jay, by being a 4-H leader and driving a school bus over long, muddy roads. She hunted and fished, too, and as a lover of the outdoors educated herself and others on every plant, animal and rock she came upon.
The Flogaus Lumber Co. closed in 1975 and Bob and Gene moved to the Pisgah Mountain Ranch at McCoy to raise Black Angus Beef cattle. Gene enjoyed being part of the community and became known as a local historian. She worked hard as a genealogist, making many inroads into local family histories. She enjoyed her relationships with numerous nieces and nephews.
The Flogaus family next moved to Gypsum in 1993 to be closer to conveniences. Gene lived a long life despite a congenital heart defect, diabetes and numerous other health problems. She always displayed courage and a positive attitude despite the pain and trouble she went through.
She was the youngest of 12 children born to Laura Anne and Abraham Basley Gooding. Gene was preceded in death by her parents; sisters Myrtle, Dulce, Maud, Geraldine, Ila and Erma-Lee; and brothers Jay, Michael Doyle, Orba, Richard and Leoford.
Gene is survived by her husband, Robert; son Jay (Carol) Flogaus, from Gypsum; daughter Betty (William) Wimmer of Wisconsin Dells, Wis.; grandsons Emmett Wimmer, J. Scott, Christopher Flogaus; and granddaughter Katherine Banner (Todd). She has two great-grandchildren, Hunter and Greta Wimmer.
Memorials can be made to The American Diabetes Association, through its website, www.diabetes.org, or by mail: American Diabetes Association, PO Box 1131, Fairfax, VA 22038-1131. Note that your donation is in memory/honor of Carmen Flogaus.
Lila Lee Gibbons
January 12, 2005
Lila Lee Gibbons touched so many with her artistic vision, expressed professionally with her Great Spirit Skulls which showed at the Aspen Mountain Gallery, and personally at home with her always-evolving interior designs and landscapes. She was a lover of animals and nature, music and books, but mostly her devoted husband, Jim, and their four children, Randy and his wife, Laura; Jill and her husband, Ed Orschel; Jennifer and her partner, Jeff Griggs; and Jodi and her husband, Clint Burwell. Six grandchildren were blessed with her love, Brittney, Brian, Mathew, E.J., August and Gwen.
Lila was born in York, Neb. She went to high school in Chicago, where she met her soul mate, Jim. Together they went to college at the University of Iowa, where she studied art. They moved to Detroit and started a family. Because of their love of the mountains, they followed their dreams of raising their children in a small ski town and moved to Aspen in 1969, owning and operating The Blue Moose restaurant.
In 1998, they moved to Santa Fe, N.M., to experience the culture and beauty of the high-desert Southwest. Lila Lee Gibbons died peacefully at her Santa Fe home on Wednesday, Dec. 29. She will always be remembered.
McGee Memorial Chapel Mortuary will be handling the arrangements. The mortuary can be reached at 1320 Luisa St., Santa Fe, NM 87505, or by phone at 505-983-9151.
John 'Red' Campbell
January 7, 2005
John "Red" Campbell lost his long fight with cancer on the night of Dec. 30 at Long Beach Memorial Hospital in Long Beach, Calif. Red was 79 years old.
Red was born in Cleveland in 1925 and served with the Army Air Corps during World War II. He worked in the construction trade in Cleveland, first coming to Aspen in 1958 to ski. Following his passion, Red returned every winter thereafter. In the mid-1960s, Red became a part-time Aspen resident. He also owned and managed four small condos in town.
Red moved to Long Beach for the summers in the early 1980s but retained his Aspen winter home.
A great skier and all-around athlete with a keen sense of humor, Red always enjoyed "beating the kids" down the mountain in his later years.
A memorial is being planned for the top of Aspen Mountain sometime in late February or early March. To be apprised of the exact date or for more information, contact Nick Heller at 303-503-1831 or Jim Abels at 948-9670.
Josanna Morningstar Reece
January 3, 2005
Josanna Morningstar Reece of Redstone died Jan. 1 in a crash on Highway 133. She was 22 years old.
Reece was employed by the Aspen Skiing Co. on Aspen Mountain and by Nordic Gardens. She was born Aug. 14, 1982, at home in El Jebel and was one of the original students at the Mountain Sage School of Carbondale. She graduated from Yampah Mountain High School in 2002.
Reece is survived by her husband, Todd Reece, of Redstone; her father, Douglas Shockley, of Ridgway, Colo.; her mother, Janelle Honer, and stepfather Stephen Shaffer, of Kurtistown, Hawaii; brother Joseph Shockley of Hollywood, Fla.; hanai sisters Meadowsweet Lenk of Paonia and Keeley Frye of Aspen; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Services for Josanna Morningstar Reece will be held at 5 p.m. Friday at Carbondale Methodist Church, 385 S. Second St. in downtown Carbondale. Morningstar Reece was born in El Jebel and died New Year's Eve in a crash on Highway 133.
Donations are being accepted in lieu of flowers by Colorado Animal Rescue Inc., 2801 County Road 114, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601. For more information contact 927-0641.
Roy Vroom
March 3, 2005
Roy Vroom, an early Aspen Mountain ski instructor, died on Sunday, Feb. 27. He was 79 years old.
Roy was born in Paterson, N.J., in March 1925 to John and Jacoba Vroom. He was the youngest of seven children. He spent his childhood there and in Green Pond, N.J., where he ran his own milk and newspaper delivery business, and met his wife, Sally. They moved to Aspen in 1952, where he opened a real estate office.
Roy was one of the original instructors to teach with the Aspen ski school. He built the Aspen Racquet Club and helped pioneer the first inflatable indoor tennis facility of its kind. Roy also enjoyed water skiing, tennis, flying, golf, hiking and fitness training, and he practiced nutrition as a way of life.
Roy was a gentleman, devoted father and family man whose friends could always count on him for a good laugh and a new perspective. He had boundless energy and plentiful advice on how to negotiate the slopes of Aspen with grace, perfect technique and confidence.
Roy is survived by his sister, Helen Dersahagian; son, Jeffrey Vroom; daughter, Holly Vroom-Roberts; eight grandchildren; and countless nieces and nephews.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered for Roy's intentions on Monday, Feb. 28. Friends and family may pay their respects to Roy on Saturday, March 5, from 1 to 6 p.m. at Farnum Holt Funeral Home, 405 W. Seventh St. in Glenwood Springs. A rosary will follow.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer's disease research organization of your choice.
Betty Grindlay
March 6, 2005
Elizabeth Ellis (Betty) Grindlay, a longtime Aspen resident, died in Arlington, Mass., on Monday, Feb. 21. She was 88 years old.
Betty was born on July 11, 1916, to Fred C. and Auguste Helmholz Ellis in Milwaukee. Auguste was the only daughter of the prominent August and Elise Vgel Helmholz family. Betty was the youngest of four children and grew up in Milwaukee's German culture. Her three brothers, Oakman, Fred and Farnsworth Ellis, preceded her in death.
She attended Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and, in 1939, married John Happer Grindlay of Youngstown, Ohio, then a fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. While Dr. Grindlay spent two-and-a-half years in China and Burma before and during World War II, Betty and their eldest daughter, Sara Elizabeth, lived with Betty's mother in Milwaukee.
Upon his return from the war, Dr. Grindlay was assigned to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., and the Stuart Circle Hospital in Richmond, Va., where their second child, Jonathan Ellis was born. They moved back to Rochester in 1946, where Lorna Auguste was born and where Dr. Grindlay rose to become director of surgical research at the Mayo Clinic.
While in Rochester, Betty was active in the League of Women Voters, the Unitarian-Universalist Church, and was a force in local politics, serving as the Republican Party state chairwoman at a time when moderates ruled the party.
When Dr. Grindlay retired in 1966, he and Betty moved to Colorado. Two years after Dr. Grindlay's death in 1968, Betty moved to Aspen where she lived until 2001.
Before and during her 30 years in Aspen, Betty, an active member of the Orton Society, tutored numerous children and adults at a card table in her Aspen home on ways to overcome the challenges of living and learning with dyslexia, and was instrumental in bringing the disorder to the attention of local school officials in western Colorado.
She served on the Board of Trustees of the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, and was its chair for two years. She was also an active skier and tennis player. Her other great passions were German shepherds and classical music; hers was a familiar face at Aspen concerts, and she hosted a classical music program on an Aspen radio station.
Her later years were spent in assisted living facilities in Aspen, Carbondale and Arlington, Mass., where she passed away comforted by her son and daughter-in-law and embraced by all her family in spirit. Her children: Sara of Portland, Ore., Josh of Lincoln, Mass., and Lorna of Denver, plus four grandchildren, survive her.
A memorial service will be held in Aspen at a date to be announced. Contributions in Betty's memory may be made to the Music Associates of Aspen.
Joseph L. Peck
March 9, 2005
Joseph L. Peck died suddenly in his home on Martha's Vineyard on March 2. He was 53 years old.
Joe was born in New York and worked there for many years as a photographer after college. He always spent a great deal of time in Aspen and eventually made it his permanent home in the 1990s. He owned the store Kristen of Aspen for many years before starting his own clothing company.
Joe had a passion for skiing fast and loved to ski top-to-bottoms on Spar Gulch all day long. He also loved the Aspen social scene and was a fixture at Mezzaluna and the Caribou Club.
He is survived by his wife, Sheila-Katherine, and son Tain of Vineyard Haven, Mass.; his mother, Helen, of Scarsdale, N.Y.; his sister Mary Ellen Rogers (Peter) and brother Robert Peck (Paula), both of New York and Aspen; and his niece Alex Kendrick (Scott and Cooper) of Aspen. He will be missed by his many local friends.
Ruth Salzman Adams
March 18, 2005
Ruth Salzman Adams, of Chicago, Washington, Basalt, and more recently San Diego, succumbed peacefully to cancer at her home on Friday evening, Feb. 25, in the loving company of her husband of 51 years, Robert McCormick Adams, daughters Gail Lorien, Beth Skinner, and Megan Adams, and grandchildren Nico and Gabi Herbst and Reese Adams-Romagnoli. She was 81 years old.
The Adams family owns a house up the Fryingpan, in the Seven Castles area. Ruth had many local connections; most recently she was a panelist on last August's Einstein seminar held at the Aspen Institute. She was also a former trustee of the Rocky Mountain Institute.
Ruth held posts on numerous national and international boards and her work spanned a breadth of interests. Among others, she was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and her books include works on human migrations, the anti-ballistic missile, and contemporary China. She had been program director for Peace and International Cooperation of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and prior to that editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In the later decades of the Cold War she had a role in maintaining the flow of understanding on nuclear issues between senior Western and Soviet scientists.
