Gates Center Farewells

Tim Gardner: We refused to say goodbye to Tim Gardner upon his retirement from the Anschutz Medical Campus in August 2020, where he had served since December 2013 as CFO of both the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and the Gates Biomanufacturing Facility. We much preferred to say, see you soon!

Tim arrived at the Gates Center with a wide array of experience leading innovative companies focused on growth and profitability. His financial acumen coupled with his business development, strategic planning and negotiation skills, and tremendous creativity made him an ideal candidate to serve in a number of roles, helping drive the development and growth of the Gates Center and Gates Biomanufacturing Facility during a crucially formative time.

Since moving to Denver in 1985, Tim has also been involved with a number of non-profit organizations, and it is no accident that he has consistently moved into the ranks of these entities’ volunteer leadership. His willingness to simply roll up his sleeves to support those around him, help address challenging situations, and work constructively to promote and move organizations forward is readily apparent to those with whom he works closely. Professionally and as a volunteer, Tim inherently embraces and personifies Charlie Gates’ focus on innovation and collaboration along with his adage that “No one does their best work alone.”

Upon George H.W. Bush’s death in 2018, Tim reached out to share the text of a letter President Bush had written to a friend with the following advice to young people:

1. Don’t get down when your life takes a bad turn. Out of adversity comes challenge and often success. 2. Don’t blame others for your setbacks. 3. When things go well, always give credit to others. 4. Don’t talk all the time. Listen to your friends and mentors and learn from them. 5. Don’t brag about yourself. Let others point out your virtues, your strong points. 6. Give someone else a hand. When a friend is hurting, show that friend you care. 7. Nobody likes an overbearing big shot. 8. As you succeed, be kind to people. Thank those who help you along the way. 9. Don’t be afraid to shed a tear when your heart is broken because a friend is hurting. 10. Say your prayers!!

Tim Gardner is one who embodies these tenets, and his dedicated and selfless contributions to the Gates Center, the Gates Biomanufacturing Facility and the Anschutz Medical Campus will long be cherished and remembered.

Charles Wall: As 2020 drew to an end, so did the varied and interesting career of one of the Gates Center’s loyal employees as he headed toward retirement in January 2021. Having arrived to fill the position of lab manager for the Gates Center in September 2014, Charlie Wall brought 26 years of experience working in academic or private science and a broad array of life experience to share. Born on an Air Force base in Kansas, Charlie joined the Navy at age 17, worked as an underground hard rock miner at the Henderson Mine in Empire, Colorado, and then landed at the University of Colorado Boulder once he decided to pursue his education. With a great interest in biology, nature, and the outdoors, Charlie graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology -a program that was new, high tech, competitive, and very promising.

After several years working in biotech in Los Angeles, Charlie returned to Denver and moved professionally back and forth between National Jewish and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. At National Jewish he was first exposed to mouse embryonic stem cells and hematopoiesis and felt as if he had gotten in on the ground floor of stem cell research!

Over the years, Charlie has been thrilled to be in the position to support the science going on in the Gates Center labs and to see all that is being done to translate this work into human therapies. Like others, he sees tremendous potential for stem cell research in changing medicine as we know it. He has particularly reveled in planning and leading tours for school groups and in the promise of all the interns and young people with whom he’s worked, who now stand to move the field of regenerative medicine ahead.

Leading up to and throughout the 2020 year, it was Charlie who planned, orchestrated and oversaw the lion’s share of the renovation necessary to outfit a new space into which the Gates Center offices and labs moved during the summer of 2020. We look forward to thanking him in person for all his many efforts on our collective behalf and to hearing of the wide array of outside interests and adventures he and his wife Shelley (who was a longtime employee in the Dean’s office) will be pursuing, shed of their campus responsibilities.