Gone, but not
forgotten
In memoriam
Alex Cook, 1922-2012. FMC past President Alex Cook passed away on Dec. 12th. He had been active in leading the Boulder Stamp Club, and was the president or treasurer of the FMC during five separate periods in the 1990's and 2000's. His most recent service to the club was as treasurer in 20072008. Alex served as a radar technician in England during the Second World War. After the war he became an accountant, and retired in 1987. He was twice chairman of the Denver Gem and Mineral Show. Alex was an avid collector of stamps, coins and minerals, and will be missed by all members of the FMC who knew him. His obituary appeared in the Daily Camera on December 14.
Bill Reid, 1945-2012.
Long-time club member Bill Reid died on June 12, 2012. His obituary appeared in the Daily Camera on June 2.
Howard Bachman, 1934-2001
Long-time club member Howard C. Bachman
died in his home December 27, 2001. A eulogy by Jordan Sawdo can be found on the Denver Mining Club site.
Joseph Backes, d. 2002
by Carl Bird
The Flatirons mineral club has lost one of
its members, Joseph Backes. Joe passed away on
November 14, 2002. We remember Joe as one who was quiet but always willing to
help. While unable to work this year, in prior years Joe helped set up for the
show and worked at the children's wheel during the show. He volunteered for
security at the
Lucille Hultquist, 1916-2003
by John Hurst.
Flatirons Mineral Club charter member
Lucille Hultquist died in
For today's members, it may be difficult
to remember back to the very first meetings of our Flatirons Mineral Club.
Would it surprise you to know that Lucille was there taking notes as the FMC
secretary? Lucille and her husband, Martin, were founding members of the
Flatirons Mineral Club, along with the Tripps. In the
fifties, Don Tripp operated a grocery store on Broadway, just north of
Lucille and Martin Hultquist
have been contributing, hard-working members of our club for almost fifty
years. They helped set up our annual club shows and between Lucille's fabric
and Martin's gemstone bowls and boxes in their cases, we had some of the finest
lapidary displays in the hobby. Lucille always sewed grab bags so creatively,
that children and adults alike bought our grab bags primarily for the special
fabric features---the rocks were just an extra bonus. Her cheerful enthusiasm
for our hobby was infectious and she always encouraged Martin to new lapidary
feats. How many of us have lapidary works in the Lizzadro
Museum of Fine Arts in
We recall how Martin and Lucille hosted
club members for a class on bowl making, the many hours of nurturing and
mentoring several of us in the lapidary arts always followed by Lucille's and Martin's
delicious treats. In recent years, her interests also included some fine work
with her church bell choir and it should be noted that she wrote music and
arrangements for that group.
For those of us who were fortunate enough
to know Lucille, she will always hold a special place in our memories---for all
those times she brightened our gatherings, for all those happy faces of
children clutching one of her special grab bags in their hands, and above all,
for just being Lucille. Our thoughts are with your family and yes, Lucille, we
all miss you too.
Charlie Morris, 1939-2003
Long-time club member Charlie Morris
died at home Saturday, Aug. 2, 2003.
Funeral services were held at
Elaine
McSherry, 1921-2003
Long-time club member Elaine McSherry
was killed in an automobile accident in the
Flatirons
Facets, April 2004
On Tuesday, December 30, 2003, Elaine Lucille McSherry
died in a two-vehicle accident south of Why, Arizona.
Elaine McSherry was born in
Besides her abiding faith, Mrs. McSherry is remembered for her love of travel and for her inclination to treat her many friends as members of her family.
Her abiding interest in rocks and gemstones was a life-long hobby. Elaine
was a member of the Fort Collins Mineral Club prior to 1984. Shortly after
Elaine and David McSherry were married on Oct. 20,
1984 in
Mrs. McSherry enjoyed attending the International
Rock and Gem shows in
She is survived by her husband, David McSherry, of
The family suggests memorial donations be made to Child Evangelism Fellowship; Pima County Chapter, P.O. Box 12012, Tucson, AZ 85732; or you may make a memorial contribution to the Flatirons Mineral Club student scholarship fund in the name of Elaine, and the Club will notify her family of the contributions made to this fund in her name.
Judd
Payne, d. 2005
Flatirons Facets, November 2005
Our
sympathy is extended to the family of member Judd Payne who died at age 73 on
October 19, 2005. Mr Payne worked at the US
Department of Commerce Boulder Labs from 1960 until his retirement in
1986. He was interested in geology and gemstones and made jewelry from
the gemstones. Judd's name will be entered in our scholarship memory
book. If you would like to contribute to the memorial fund, please send
your check made out to Flatirons Mineral Club to Carl Bird,
Derek Firth, 1927-2005
Flatirons
Facets, Jan/Feb 2006
Club member Derek Firth of the Grand Junction club and a past active
officer/member of the FMC and North Jefco mineral
clubs passed away on Dec. 29th, 2005 of natural causes while on vacation near
Leadville. Derek had been a long time employee of Rocky Flats and
he and his wife, Barbara had retired to the
Derek
had been the field trips chair for the GJ club for many years, and had escorted
a group of FMC members this past year to the Book Cliffs area. The Firths can
be found on internet search-engine or dexonline under that city, if you would like to have
their address to send Barbara a sympathy note.
Boulder
Camera, Jan 4, 2006
Derek Firth, of
The son of Wilfred Firth and Elsie Marr Firth, he was born Aug. 9, 1927, in
William Dana Bateman, 1941-2006.
Flatirons Facets, Jan/Feb 2006
Former FMC club president and field trip coordinator Willliam
Dana Bateman died in
Boulder
Camera, Feb. 11, 2006
William Dana Bateman, of
He
earned a bachelor's degree from
Survivors
include his wife, of
A
memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Monday at First Presbyterian Church,
Audie Covey, 1933-2006
Audie Covey, wife of 49 years of club member Harry Covey, died on July 29. Our sympathies go out to Harry. Audie was a nurse and had worked at Boulder Memorial Hospital. A celebration of life will be held at the Gold Hill Inn on Sunday, Aug. 13, at 3:00 p.m. Her obituary is available at the Boulder Daily Camera's web site.
Astrid
'Audie' Louise Covey
April 8, 1933 — July 29, 2006
Astrid "Audie" Louise Covey, of Boulder, died of natural causes Saturday, July 29, 2006, in Boulder. She was 73.
The daughter of Carl Henry Landin and Mildred Johnson Landin, she was born April 8, 1933, in Omaha, Neb. She married Verner Christensen on Feb. 27, 1953, in Kimballton, Iowa. He died. She married Harry D. Covey on May 5, 1957, in Superior, Neb. Mrs. Covey moved to Boulder in 1957. A graduate of nursing school, she worked at Boulder Memorial Hospital, Puritan-Bennett and BI-Inc. She was a member of the Sunshine Bunko Group and enjoyed reading murder mysteries. She adopted three families through World Vision. "Audie was everybody's mother, and she will be missed by many," her family said.
Survivors include her husband, of Boulder; four sons, Mark Nelsen, of Harlan, Iowa, John Nelsen, of Kimballton, Iowa,, Martin Covey, of Boulder, and Dennis Covey, of Hilo, Hawaii; two daughters, Janice Wheeler and Anita Hanson, both of Boulder; 15 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by her first husband.
A celebration of life will be from noon to 3 p.m. Aug. 13 at Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St. Contributions in Mrs. Covey's name may be sent to HospiceCare of Boulder and Broomfield Counties, 2594 Trailridge Drive East, Lafayette, CO 80026. Crist Mortuary in Boulder is handling arrangements.
Joe Connelly, 1929-2007
Colorado Springs Gazette, Apr. 22, 2007
Joseph Patrick Connelly, age 77 of Colorado Springs, Colorado died April
19, 2007 at his home on Cooper Avenue. He was born September 9, 1929 in Highcoal, West Virginia to the late Charles Patrick and
Edna Lenora (King) Connelly and was one of seven children. He is survived by
three sons; Ronald, Donald and Alan Connelly all of Colorado Springs, as well
as three grandchildren. He is also survived by two sisters, June Connelly and
Ramona Dudley, and two brothers, Bill and Paul Con! nelly, all residing in
Virginia. Joseph retired from Western Forge, served in the army, and had his
pilot license. Joseph was the owner operator of Connelly Automotive Machine
Shop. During his life he had countless friends and achievements and was loved
by all who knew him. Services will be held at Blunt Mortuary, 2229 West
Colorado Avenue in Colorado Springs, Colorado 80904 on Tuesday April 24, 2007
at 1:00 p.m.
Claudia R.Tripp,
1914-2007
Claudia
Reed Tripp, the wife of club co-founder Don Tripp passed away on Feb 25th of
this year. Charlotte Morrison and Gerry Naugle
attended her memorial service on April 28th at the First Christian Church in
Martin E.Hultquist,
d. Dec. 24, 2007
Club
co-founder Dr. Martin Hultquist of
Flatirons Facets, Nov./Dec.
2007
Intrigued with an agate bowl he purchased in 1965, Martin set out to create his
own machinery to make bowls at home. Using his lapidary skills and mechanical
ability, Martin began with designs that others had developed. Over the next
several years, he modified these designs to create unique equipment capable of
creating the thin bowls he desired. Martin has created bowls up to 5 inches in
diameter, using many materials, including agate, amethyst, rose quartz, rhodochrosite, petrified wood and bone, jasper, and jade.
Martin also taught many club members his bowl making techniques.
Martin began displaying his bowls at Flatirons Mineral Club shows in the late 1960s. At the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies’ national mineral hobby craft competition in 1972, Martin took first place over approximately 100 other entries for his world-class bowls. He was also honored with an article featuring his bowls in the February 1990 Lapidary Journal.
One of the perks of being the Flatirons Mineral Club president is that you get to keep and display a fabulous tiger-eye bowl, made by Martin, for the length of your term of office. At the club’s 50th anniversary meeting on March 8th of 2007, Martin received the first ever Flatirons Mineral Club Lifetime Achievement Award for both his bowl making expertise and for the time and effort he spent over the years to make the club the success it is today.
Charlotte Morrison, 1923-2010.
Charlotte Morrison died on Saturday,
July 31, 2010 at Boulder Community Hospital after a short illness. Her obituary can be
found in the August 5, 2010 Daily
Camera.
Flatirons Facets, July/Aug. 2010
Bill and Charlotte Morrison were underpinnings of support for the FMC Club for the past thirty years. Bill moved his family to Boulder from Rockville, MD in 1976 when he accepted a job with the National Weather Service (NWS) in the Solar Instruments Division at their offices near 30th St and Arapahoe Ave. Both Charlotte and Bill were originally from the west area of Idaho with her home town being Moscow, ID. Bill Morrison passed away on 26 Dec 1999.
They had been avid rockhounds and fossil collectors while in the US east coast area, and brought all of that with them to Boulder. They started with the FMC in about 1980. Bill was President of the FMC twice and Charlotte was the club Secretary numerous times. They went on field trips, too many to count, in the Rocky Mountain area and had a wide assortment of collected fossils and minerals at their house in Boulder. She was active in other crafts such as painted eggs, colored sand paintings and beading. She did instruction on beading at the Frasier Meadows crafts room for several years.
Charlotte had also been a member of WIPS, CMS and North Jeffco clubs and was the editor of the FMC newsletter outright for approximately ten years, then assisted Melinda Thompson and then Barry Knapp (current FMC editor) after that in the important capacity of proofreading. She was active on all years’ annual show committees, and coordinated the FMC tables at Denver Shows each year. She was also active on the scholarship sub-committee.
Her main activity joy in recent years was having the Jr Geologists group meet monthly at her house when they were not out on their own field trips and during the fall/winter/early spring months.
Charlotte’s gritty determination to “get things done” was a valued asset of the FMC Club over three decades. Memorial donations to the FMC Scholarship Endowment Fund can be in her name made at: FMC, PO Box 3331, Boulder, CO 80307
Marie Mozden,
1945-2010
Flatirons Facets, July/Aug. 2010
We learned recently of the death of club member Marie Mozden at her ranch in Nederland on April 1. Marie went on our club field trips and had become a close friend of Charlotte and Gerry. She did volunteer calling for our December show—maybe you talked to her on the phone. Her obituary, as published on MountainEar.com, is most interesting. Here are some excerpts:
On Saturday afternoon, a bluebird perched on a fence post outside the Diamond M kitchen window. A burro ran from the backyard, braying in expectation. The young paint horse and the ancient mare nibbled on grass. Spring runoff formed a pool in the meadow south of the house. Pasque flowers poked their furry stems from under winter's melting mantle. It was a normal scene at the old homestead on Magnolia Road; except Marie was no longer there. The long-time rancher, Magnolia Road, mountain-woman icon, was being buried on her beloved land by friends and members of her family.
Marie Mozden died at her ranch on April 1st, of natural causes. She had reported earlier that she felt tired and then, apparently, she laid down to rest. Marie was the former Director of Ski Patrol, and then Mountains Operations Manager, at Lake Eldora Ski Area. She was well known throughout the mountains as a cattle rancher, artist, skilled horsewoman, conservator of horse drawn buggies, pilot, amateur geologist, and savior of animals. When she was 11, her family moved to Massachusetts where she spent her childhood. In high school, she was a cheerleader and was voted the most beautiful girl in her graduating class. From her earliest years she was called by her path, to horses and the high country, and after hitchhiking from Massachusetts to Alaska, she moved to Colorado to attend college at CU in Boulder, where she studied zoology, psychology, and chemistry. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1966. An autodidact and a factotum, she later self-studied philosophy, geology, veterinary science, and aerodynamics, among other interests. Marie purchased her ranch on Magnolia Road after college, and, being an avid skier, began working at the ski area. At Lake Eldora, Marie invented many of the races and rituals that are still enjoyed by the ski area employees to this day. She oversaw the construction of the cross country ski trail network, and the building of its little forest cabins. She cut many of the trails on the back side of the mountain and became famous for having wonderful parties both at the ski area and at her ranch.
As an artist, Marie painted many of the signs at Lake Eldora, as it was known then, which became coveted collector's items. Later, she painted murals on buildings in Nederland and Boulder, and at the original Nederland teen center under the Mountain People's Co-op. When Marie painted a mural on the side of the Nature's Own building, depicting a brontosaurus egg, the town board said it wasn't legal, it was too big, a decision that roused a lot of rabble at the time. Before the sign went away, Marie painted bars across the poor dinosaur, depicting the loss of freedom. If there was a cause, she was ready for it. As a conservator of horse-drawn carriages, she was contracted by museums to restore buggies, and trained both horses and drivers in this historical tradition. Later in life, she earned her pilot's license and flew her Cessna all across America going to fly-ins and hob-nobbing with other pilots. She used her plane as well to further the range of her interests in geology and land management. Carrying on the tradition of the old time ranchers in the area, Marie owned a herd of Simmental cattle on her ranch, along with chickens and pigs, and an ever-changing menagerie of horses and donkeys, and dogs and cats. Her first calf of the season became the Magnolia Road harbinger of spring. She sold her highly appreciated organic beef to neighbors and friends. Marie was deeply gifted with an ability to care for animals, and frequently had lost animals show up at her ranch, where she took them in and healed them of a variety of ailments. Among the humans, she always had people that she took under her wing, all across the state of Colorado, and locally, was a volunteer at the teen center in Nederland, helping troubled youth. She lived at her ranch on Magnolia Drive for over 40 years. Within that time, she also traveled widely across the states, the Caribbean, and even as far as the Sultanate of Oman, where she taught some of the local boys, who had never seen a woman without a veil, much less a blonde, blue-eyed one, how to throw an American baseball.
Edna Green, 1921-2011
Flatirons Facets, July/Aug. 2011
On May 29th we lost Edna Green, a lifetime member of the Flatirons Mineral Club. Edna was born in Franklin County, NE in 1921 and was married to Everett Green. Everett was FMC President twice in the 1960’s and 70’s, serving a total of 5 years as president and Edna held office as club Secretary. The Greens lived in Longmont. They were very active in promoting the FMC club and the annual activities during their day. Edna along with Everett (posthumous) was inducted into the FMC Hall-of-Fame in 2006 for their work over the decades.
Edna will be remembered for the fun that she brought to our club field trips, especially those blueberry pancakes. She and her husband Everett, who passed away in 1989, were always ready for a jaunt in the wilds, whether it was looking for petrified wood in Utah, digging and shaking for sapphires in Montana (she wore their self-dug. blue Montana sapphire with pride) or trekking all over Wyoming and Colorado. Edna and Everett were the ultimate field trippers.
They both collected U-V specimens and micro-mount specimens that Edna used to inspire future geologists among the students where she taught at Spangler Elementary School in Longmont. Year after year they hosted countless board meetings and worked diligently on our annual FMC Rock and Gem Show. Most of all, Edna was a genuine friend, who brought joy and happiness into our lives. Edna, we wish you eternal happiness field tripping in the hereafter. We miss you.
Bill Reid, 1944-2012
Bill worked for Micromotion in Gunbarrel, and had a lot of technical expertise. He rehabilitated much of the FMC lapidary equipment before he and his wife moved to South Carolina in 2008. His obituary appeared in the June 20, 2012 Daily Camera.
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Updated 1/7/13