BOULDER — Clela Rorex, a former Colorado county clerk considered a pioneer in the gay rights movement for being the first public official to issue a same-sex marriage license in 1975, has died. She was 78. Rorex died Sunday of complications from recent surgery at a hospice care facility in Longmont, the Daily Camera reported. […]
obituary
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Silverman: Former Denver District Attorney Norm Early was a fierce advocate for victims’ rights
When Norm Early entered a room, people took notice. Norm was tall, with broad shoulders, a powerful chest and solid arms. Norm’s full head of hair framed a handsome, mustachioed face that lit up any venue when he smiled, which happened frequently. Rooms reverberated with Norm’s infectious booming laugh, now silenced forever at age 76. […]
Posted inEducation, News
Ricardo Martinez remembered as “a warrior” for justice in Denver schools
For three decades, Ricardo Martinez, co-founder of the advocacy group Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, helped parents and students fight racism in Denver Public Schools. Last week, Denver lost the humble and fierce organizer. He died of a stroke and its complications, according to a written remembrance shared by his family. “At his core, he was […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News
The alleged killer thought no one would miss him. But the “reading man” has been missed — and now memorialized.
An imaginary south wind has bent an iron-work tree over a curved metal chair and riffled the pages of a sheet-metal book titled, “And You Also.” That was a signature comment of Warren Barnes, a gentle, homeless 69-year-old who was a downtown fixture known as “the reading man” because he so often sat along this […]
Posted inNews, Opinion, Opinion Columns
Steve Knopper: Jim Sheeler was a fierce friend, who helped his besties turn down the volume on “You Suck FM”
“I know!” was maybe the most frequent phrase I remember Jim Sheeler, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who died last weekend at 53, saying to me during our 30-year friendship. One time, I told him the story about a Pepsi Center full of Jimmy Buffett fans booing me because I refused to return the volley of […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
John Temple: Jim Sheeler had his own hidden superpowers
Jim Sheeler was not a big man. His spindly frame, topped by wire glasses that always seemed slightly askew, looked like it could have been swept away by winds howling off the Flatirons towering over his beloved Boulder. But Jim’s appearance was deceiving. He had his own hidden superpowers. Jim died at the age of […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Littwin: How do you write an obit for Jim Sheeler, the brilliant writer who made the death beat his own?
Writing an obituary for Jim Sheeler is like writing a primer on how to paint for Picasso or how to dunk for Shaquille O’Neal. It feels, well, more than a little presumptuous. It also feels, in this case, like writing through a haze as I mourn a close friend. The calls came one after the […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Former Aspen mayor Herman Edel dies at 95
Herman Edel, a former mayor of Aspen, died Friday in Ashland, Oregon. He was 95. Edel served two terms as mayor, from 1979 to 1983, in which time he was instrumental in organizing a significant restoration of the Wheeler Opera House and led early efforts in building affordable housing, according to his son, Scott Edel. […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Outdoors
Pikes Peak Marathon legend Arlene Pieper Stine, the first woman to run a sanctioned marathon, has died
One of Colorado mountain running’s most beloved heroes used to climb up the ladder next to the sign draped across the town of Manitou Springs’s main drag — “Welcome, Pikes Peak Runners” — so that she could send off the hundreds of runners who had packed the narrow street to head off for the summit […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News
Boulder shooting victim Rikki Olds “lived life on Rikki’s terms,” family and friends say
Rikki Olds didn’t pay attention to what other people thought of her. The 25-year-old was constantly dyeing her blonde hair, deciding on a whim what the latest color would be. Her coworkers at the Table Mesa King Soopers in Boulder nicknamed her “Wendy” because she often wore her blue/purple/pink locks in braids. When she wanted […]