Elton K. "Mac or EK" McQuery
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 6B - September 9, 2010
Elton K. McQuery, 92, Clifton,
died Sept. 6, 2010, at home.
Private family services will
be held at a later date.
Mr. McQuery had a long
career in intergovernmental
relations.
Survivors include two sons,
Dave of Clifton and Mark of
Englewood; one daughter, Russet
Morrow of North Attleboro,
Mass.; fi ve grandchildren and
six great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions to
Hospice & Palliative Care of
Western Colorado, 3090B North
12th St., Grand Junction 81506.
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 3C - September 12, 2010
Going on 93, Elton K. McQuery
(Mac or EK to his friends) of
Clifton believed in "playing the
hand you're dealt". After serving
in WWII, he returned to Boulder,
Colorado to work on his Master's
degree, but in the late 1940’s, he
was talked into becoming the
Chief of Staff to Governor Lee
Knous of Colorado by his close
college friend and future State Court Judge, Roscoe Pile. As such,
he and Roscoe worked tirelessly, traversing the state to direct the revision
and improvement of the state system of accounts and controls;
reorganize the Colorado Highway Department; increase state
aid to schools and workers' compensation funds and help work towards
raising the pay levels of the lower salaried employees of the
state.
Later, as Director of the Western Office of the Council of State
Governments, he was instrumental in organizing and implementing
the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a commission
organized to help students from one state attend the state universities
of other states that offered specialized programs (such as
agriculture) that their own state universities didn't offer. He also was
a principal author of the Interstate Compact on Migratory Labor. He
drafted the Interstate Enforcement of Family Support Act, (aka Run
Away Pappy Act) to force fathers to pay owed child support that
they avoided by leaving the state in which the support was due. As
director of the Western Office of CSG, his responsibilities included
organizing the agenda of the Western Governor's Conferences and,
on a national level, he did the same as the Secretary for the National
Attorneys General conferences.
In later years, he was the Assistant Executive Director of the
President's Advisory Commission for Intergovernmental Relations
(ACIR) in Washington, D.C. Its mission: To strengthen the American
federal system and improve the ability of federal, state, and local
governments to work together cooperatively, efficiently, and effectively.
Even in retirement he kept busy. He was always extremely politically
astute and had been active in local politics since college. He
even served on a local school board. He took college classes to keep
his many interests stimulated, and he spent many years teaching "55
Alive†classes for AARP. Frequently his students were 20-30 years
younger than he. He stopped teaching only at age 91 when his own
driving became somewhat limited.
He had a long history with Colorado, and especially the Grand
Valley. He moved with his family from Missouri to Hotchkiss, CO
in 1924 when his father, John Herbert McQuery, became the Pastor
of the First Baptist Church. Mac and his family also lived in Durango,
Monte Vista, and Cedaredge. Mac's parents are buried at the
IOOF Cemetery in Palisade. Mac returned from Oregon last year to
spend his remaining time on the Western Slope in the country that
he loved. He will be interred at Fort Logan National Cemetery in a
private ceremony, where his wife of 68 years, Mary Ellen McQuery
awaits him.
