In Memoriam

ALUMNI

Gilman “Gil” Ordway ’40

May 30, 2022

Wilson Jackson, Wyoming resident Gilman “Gil” Ordway died May 30 surrounded by family at his Ranch View home, overlooking his beloved Fish Creek Ranch. He was 97. The following was provided by his family.

Jackson Hole has lost a quintessential local. Humanity, an exemplar. Mother Nature, a peerless friend and champion.

Born May 7, 1925, during his 97 years, Gil touched innumerable lives with his wit, intelligence, generosity, and gentleness. He was determined to live a life that reflected his passions, values, and beliefs. He possessed a deep compassion and fierce love for Jackson Hole, conservation, and the natural world.

Gil moved to Jackson Hole in 1953. He ran the Fish Creek Ranch as both a working ranch and dude ranch until 1977, and then converted the guest quarters into modest rental cabins. For guests who appreciated humble quarters in a world-class setting, summers as part of the “Fish Creek Family” became the pivot around which their year turned.

No formal obituary could do justice to Gil’s long and remarkable life. Instead, family, friends, and colleagues have contributed anecdotes and observations capturing pieces of Gil’s character, his deeds, his journey on Earth. With luck, these verbal tiles will form a mosaic-like glimpse into Gil Ordway — an extraordinary man who, in his own quiet, understated way, lived an extraordinary life.

Gil is survived by Marge, his wife of 50 years, and daughters Kitty and Gigi, son Griffin, six grandchildren, and five greatgrandchildren. A celebration of Gil’s life was held June 14 at St. John’s Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made in Gil’s name to the Jackson Hole Land Trust at JHLandTrust.org.

George Dandrow ’50

August 7, 2022 (Lifelong Donor to Harvey)

Charles George Dandrow was born August 18, 1935, in White Plains, New York, and passed on August 7, 2022. He is preceded in death by his mother, Helen Ahlquist; father, Charles George Dandrow; and siblings Thomas Maguire and Carol Dandrow. George is survived by his wife of 62 years, Nancy, and his daughters Christina and Hillary (Newman); son-in-law Randall Newman; grandchildren Atticus, Christian, Lucas, George Dandrow, and Vincent Newman; nephews Arthur Steuer, Mike Maguire; and niece Sally Derning.

George graduated from the eighth grade class of The Harvey School in 1950 and from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1954. He then attended Cornell and Columbia Universities before coming to West Lafayette to attend Purdue University. While at Purdue, he earned a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature before finding his true calling and earning his MSW from Indiana University in 1970. He then went on to work at Purdue Hospital as a mental health therapist as well as a founding member and lifelong practitioner at Mascouten Family Institute in West Lafayette , Indiana. He was proudly certified as a Gestalt therapist. In high school, he was an All-American swimmer and never lost his love for the water. In 1958, he enlisted in the Army and spent his tour of duty as the assistant swim coach at West Point Military Academy in New York.

George loved laughter, food, good company, poetry, prose, a lively intellectual discussion, and helping people wherever and whenever. Later in life, George found joy through his art.

There will be a remembrance celebration with a date yet to come. Please, in lieu of flowers, donate to your charity of choice.

That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin’d choirs where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see’st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire, Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by. This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long. —Shakespeare, Sonnet LXXIII

Matthew “Matty” Kurtz ’86

June 6, 2022

Matthew Samuel Kurtz, 54, known to his myriad of friends as Matty, died unexpectedly, Monday, June 6, at Bridgeport Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His former wife, Kimberly Kurtz, and his daughter Tessa Lee, 20, were at his side; while his son, Ryder James, 18, who was away at school, was with him by phone.

After graduating from Harvey, Matty went to the University of Denver, where he was a proud member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. He was an all-county hockey player and Number One player on the tennis team all through his high school career. At DU he continued to play hockey and any sport that involved a ball or a puck.

Matty loved music and was devoted to the Grateful Dead. He traveled far and wide to enjoy the guitar solos and the community. He graduated with a degree in communications, but his real major in college and in life was friendship. He never met a stranger, and the relationships he made at Harvey, and at DU, in life live on.

The focus and great loves of his life were his children, Tessa and Ryder. He loved them beyond measure. They survive him, as does his mother, Millee Taggart Ratcliffe; sister and brother-in-law, Heather Allyn and Rob Nagle; and a large, loving extended family,

FORMER FACULTY/STAFF

Edward Phillips Connors

July 26, 2022

Edward P. Connors was a faculty member, coach, and dorm parent with his wife Hope S. Connors from 1959 to 1961.

Outdoorsman, athlete, coach, teacher, mentor, traveler, tour guide, environmentalist, gardener, art historian, musician, and so much more, Edward P. Connors lived life with passionate enthusiasm and loved nothing more than sharing his sense of adventure with his family, students, friends, and colleagues. And thanks to his leadership in helping create Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness Area and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, he made a positive impact on the lives of an even wider circle.

Born and raised in Lake Forest, Illinois, he attended Fessenden School, Taft School, Yale University, and Harvard University. After teaching at The Harvey School and Lake Forest Country Day, he moved with his equally adventurous wife, Hope, to Colorado in 1964 to teach at Denver Country Day School, Kent School for Girls, and Kent Denver School until 1993. Not content simply to teach, he was always working to leave the world a better place for future generations. That desire resulted in what he felt was his greatest accomplishment: the 1975 designation by Congress of the Weminuche Wilderness Area in Southern Colorado. Edward, as a leader of the Colorado Open Space Council (COSC), worked with many others to help establish what is now the largest designated Wilderness in Colorado. His effort included giving testimony for a 1973 Senate hearing on “Colorado Wilderness Areas.”

While president at COSC, a consortium of 34 environmental and outdoor recreation organizations, internationally renowned artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude recruited him to serve as their spokesperson on the environmental impact of their 1972 ground-breaking temporary installation “Valley Curtain” in Rifle Gap, Colorado. His environmental activism in the late 1960s and ’70s also included leading the Rocky Mountain Center on Environment. In 1971 he was named Environmentalist of the Year by the Colorado Mountain Club.

Edward believed his other great achievement came in the 1980s when, as President of the Board of Trustees (1985 to 1987) at the Denver Botanic Gardens, he formally advanced the idea of a “culture tax” to his counterparts at the Denver Zoo, Denver Art Museum, and the then-Denver Natural History Museum. The ensuing collaboration and work of those organizations, as well as other groups that ultimately became part of the seven-county Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), helped secure voter authorization in 1988. Since then, the SCFD has generated more than a billion dollars in funding for arts and culture in the Denver metropolitan area.

Because of his passion for flowers and plants (probably initiated while he helped his mother establish the Victory Garden program in Chicago during World War II), and fascination with the history of gardening and landscape design, the Garden Club of America named him an Honorary Member-at-Large.

For more than 20 years, Edward served on the advisory board of the Whitney Western Art Museum, a division of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, and was later asked to serve on the board of trustees of the Center itself. During the long twice-annual drives to Cody, Wyoming, for board meetings, he always visited the black-footed ferret captive breeding program in Meeteetse to follow the progress of reintroducing populations of this presumed extinct mammal. He also would return to his favorite valley in Yellowstone National Park to systematically document for the National Park Service the decades-long natural reforestation after the 1988 fire.

His expansive curiosity was rooted in a fascination with history, particularly of art and world cultures, while the splendors and diversity of the natural world filled his imagination with wonder. Understanding the past, he pushed for a better future, hoping to provide young people with a healthier, more loving and accepting world in which to live. Sharing his classroom over the years with more than 2,400 young minds inspired him daily, and the successes and creativity of former students gave him great pride. One of the first coaches to introduce lacrosse in schools west of the Mississippi, he also coached young men in football, skiing, and hockey. He especially enjoyed transitioning to coach women’s ice hockey and lacrosse, where he nurtured the spirit of team camaraderie and good sport.

His survivors, whom he introduced to adventures around the world, include his wife of 63 years, Hope Stout Connors, and children: Timothy Phillips Connors and wife Kendra Connors; Andrew Lamarche Connors and husband Rémy Rotenier; Hope Bayard Connors; and grandchildren, Hamilton Phillips Connors, Lachlan Cryder Connors, and Hope Balsam Brown.

There was a celebration of Edward’s life in October at the Denver Botanic Gardens.