Ramblin' Around the Corral with Bob Sweeney

Observing and honoring

It is with a note of sadness that we observe and honor the death of three very notable local citizens following the obituary last week of former Greenwood Village councilman Clark Upton. This week we received notice of the death of three more prominent and revered citizens.

Judge Robert Fullerton was a preeminent Denver judge with family roots in Colorado going back to 1859. His full obituary is in this week’s newspaper. Among his many attributes he presided over the marriage of my youngest daughter over a decade ago and had a reputation as the “Marrying Judge,” according to his daughter Linda. His lovely wife Beverlee is one of our most successful realtors. I was in the Denver Lions Club with his brother Don for decades, but Bob was always too busy holding daily court.

Another historic figure who left us May 23 was Bob Tschirki who was superintendent of both Cherry Creek and Littleton school districts. He always had a smile on his face and enjoyed his lifetime career in education. He was awarded the “Colorado Superintendent of the Year” in 1988. His motto, “Make this a great day! ”Read his obituary in The Villager this week.

The Ringsby Truck line delivered newsprint to my Craig newspaper for years owned and operated by the Ringsby family. Later in life I met Don and Karen Ringsby who both were very active in the local community. Don branched out from trucking and became president of Denver based Aspen Airways. Karen once wrote a column for this newspaper. Don was very active in the Colorado Consular Corp and served as a member and officer in that organization. He was a giant in commerce and industry passing away May 15.

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I received a special treat this week in a manila envelope from Larry Brown, a new resident of Kingman, Kansas. Larry is a lifelong friend from Western Slope days when he worked for the Colorado River Water Conservation division based in Glenwood Springs. He would visit the newspaper as part of his river water territory of Yampa, White and Colorado rivers The family eventually ended up living in Littleton where Larry and I ate hotdogs and talked politics.

They now reside in Kingman, KS. He just sent me a copy of the local Kingman-Courier with the following note. “My hometown newspaper has a feisty editor, the kind that was common 40 or 50 years ago. Rare today.” Best regards, Larry I enjoyed reading the local newspaper and agree that publisher Jason Jump is feisty, His lead front-page story was taking the County Health Director to task for keeping the Kingman Expo Center shut down with nary a case of coronavirus in the entire county. Jump quotes Thomas Jefferson’s saying, “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”

Larry still reads his other hometown paper, The Villager.

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We should do whatever we can to return to normal. Proceed with caution on all fronts. No one is forced to go anywhere. It is a matter of personal choice.

The Kingman-Leader’s box on the front page says it very well:

It’s not the government’s job to protect my health. It is the government’s job to protect my RIGHTS! It’s my job to protect my health. When you trade liberty for safety you end up losing both.