Paul Johnston
Obituaries
Vail Daily page A4 - March 20, 2015
Former Vail mayor Paul Johnston passes away.
VAIL — Legend has it that Paul Johnston rode into town on a motorcycle during Vail’s first winter, 1962-63, with a grin on his face and hair out to here.
He rode away for good on Monday, when he died after a long illness. The celebration of his life is scheduled for April 11. Details will be forthcoming.
If you’ve been around long enough, then you remember Johnston’s tireless work to bring to Vail the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships.
As a Vail mayor and Town Council member, he advocated for a convention center, a cemetery and roundabouts to replace the town’s legendary and occasionally laughable four-way stop.
“I never drive through one of those roundabouts without thinking of him and smiling,” said Michelle Maloney, Johnston’s daughter.
You might even remember the Nu Gnu, Vail’s first rock ‘n’ roll bar and one of Vail’s original iconic libation locations, along with John and Diane Donovan’s Copper Bar.
“John Donovan kicked ’em out of his bar at 10:30 p.m., took his money and went home, then they stayed at the Nu Gnu until we closed up. We’d shovel ’em out at 2 a.m.,” Johnston said, reminiscing about when Vail was a more rough and tumble place.
The Nu Gnu was Vail’s first and only rock ‘n’ roll bar. It wasn’t on the Vail social circle’s list of must-see places. The garden club and the Junior League did not meet there.
“It was a lot different then,” Johnston laughed years later. “Many of the guys who are pillars of society now were falling off my bar stools then.”
Johnston left Vail for a while to return to Oklahoma and his family’s construction business. Somewhere in there he met Sally, his second wife, and they moved back to Vail and bought the Christiania Lodge.
His first tenure with the Vail Town Council ran from September 1980 through November 1987, serving as mayor pro tem and mayor from 1983 to 1987. He served again as a council member from 1993-1997.
Johnston has been described by friends, and friendly foes, as a man before his time.
He was never afraid to speak his mind, especially when he thought it was what the town needed. He jumped into the middle of Vail’s convention center debate with a passionate and detailed explanation about why the town needed one.
The anti-convention people made it a campaign issue in the next Town Council runoff, and Johnston lost. Every economic study done since then points to a convention center that Johnston said was needed.
In the 1980s, he also advocated for a cemetery in Vail, reasoning that people are born there, live there and die there. Opponents argued that no one ever dies in Vail.
Then there was the following-the-bouncing-boulder incident. The Vail Town Council postponed an ordinance that would have required notifying property buyers that they were buying property in areas threatened by landslides or rockfalls — places like the Booth Creek Falls area, where there were lots of homes for sale and lots of commissions to be earned.
The decision to postpone came as an organized contingent from the Vail Board of Realtors staged a last-minute grandstand play to delay the ordinance.
Mayor Paul Johnston cast the only vote to approve the ordinance.
A week or so later, after being skewered by Front Range media, the Vail council passed a version of that ordinance.
Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.
Vail Daily page A2 - April 8, 2015
Paul Ross Johnston, former mayor of Vail and owner of the Christiania Lodge, peacefully hung up his boots March 16.
Paul was a soldier and peace activist, a painter and an author, an art dealer and a Realtor, a cowboy and a bartender, a pilot and a motocross rider, a hospice volunteer and an ecumenical minister. Most of all he was the most gentle, generous and selfless man we have ever known.
Born in Oklahoma City in 1933, Paul was a state champion track star in high school who studied business and played football at University of Oklahoma under Bud Wilkinson. It was only fitting that Paul became a Sooner since his grandfather made the initial run into Oklahoma in 1893. Paul married his college sweetheart, Mitzie, joined the U.S. Army after graduation and was stationed in Germany before returning home to the construction business in Oklahoma City.
Paul was one of Colorado’s original mountain town pioneers, spending the early ’60s in Crested Butte, where he built the Ore Bucket Lodge (now the Christina), managed a movie theatre, a laundromat and a boarding house while serving on the town council.
In 1967, Paul moved to Vail and founded the Nu Gnu, one of Vail’s destination hot spots in the late ’60s. Paul manned the door every night with a handlebar mustache and a fishnet shirt or a feather boa and a painted head.
In 1970, Paul married Sarah Cox. They moved back to Oklahoma, but longed for Colorado. In 1976, they saw a chance when Vail’s first family owned lodge, the Christiania, came up for sale. They scraped together all the money they could find and moved their young family into the Christiania. Paul spent the next 40 years in Vail building a family and a business and a town. He helped found the Vail Chamber of Commerce, the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater and the Shaw Regional Cancer Center. He served on the town council for more than a decade and served as mayor from 1983-87, where he succeeded in bringing the first World Alpine Ski Championships to Vail in 1989.
Paul rode a motorcycle 1,000 miles across Mexico, speared fish in Cozumel, built a church in Guatemala, attended daily mass, opened an art gallery, visited more than 50 counties, started an ecumenical ministry, flew small planes with his St. Bernard as a co-pilot, protested The School of the Americas, read voraciously, would always make room at the table for one more and would always lead with a hug.
He is survived by his wife, Sally; his four children Michelle, Paul, John and Michael; and his 11 grandkids.
A celebration of Paul’s life will be at the Vail Interfaith Chapel at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday with a reception to follow.
The celebration is festive dress — Hawaiian shirts and feather boas are encouraged. Paul lived a life of service, actively giving to hundreds of charities and relentlessly volunteering his time and energy.
In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to a local charity or cause that is close to your heart.
Vail Daily page A25 - April 10, 2015
In Memory. Celebrate Paul Johnston’s life at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Vail Interfaith Chapel. Hawaiian shirts and feather boas are the suggested dress. A reception will follow.
