William McHarg "Bill" Ela
Marriages
Shirley Phillips
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 5 B Obituary - September 8, 2016
“This is a good season”, Bill
said as he savored fresh
peaches and tomatoes, beets,
basil and corn shortly before
September 1, 2016, when the
deeply rooted and devoted son
of Western Colorado came
peacefully to the end of the
trail at home at age 93.
William "Bill" McHarg Ela was the fourth of five sons of
Wendell Dennett and Lucy Ferril Ela, part of the Ela family that
started ranching on Glade Park in the 1880s. He grew up
signaling by semaphore from the Three Sisters, tying a log
behind his bike to slow the ride down Serpent’s Trail, and skiing
on the early rope tows at Mesa Lakes, Mesa Creek and the jump
on Lands End.
These unique Grand Junction experiences, along with his
mother’s vast knowledge of birds and botany, gave him a lifelong
love of the outdoors which he, in turn, passed to his five
children, Beth, Wendell, Tom, Dan and Steve.
Bill graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1941 and
enrolled at Mesa Junior College. While there, he joined the
Navy officer training corps and was sent on to Colorado
University, University of New Mexico and ultimately Cornell
before he finished his naval career during World War II as a
navigator on a destroyer in the Pacific.
After his discharge, the newly-enacted GI Bill and the typing
skills of his new bride, Shirley Phillips Ela, put him through
Harvard Law School. They returned to their roots in Grand
Junction and he took up practice at the law firm of Adams,
Heckman & Traylor, ultimately becoming a partner. In addition
to many uranium miners, he represented Mesa College, from
which he later received its Distinguished Alumni Award and an
honorary doctorate.
Destiny called in the form of Governor Love, who chose him
to fill a vacancy as Judge of the District Court in the first
appointment under the new, non-partisan, judicial appointment
process. He served as Judge, and then Senior Judge, for 35
years. Along the way he was President of both the State District
Judges Association and the Juvenile Judges Association, a
teacher in the National College of Trial Judges, and President of
the local Bar Association. He led and participated in student and
adult Great Books groups - dedicated to learning critical
thinking from the classics, was active in the Jaycees - receiving
the Outstanding State President Award, served for decades as a
trustee and Chairman of the Goodwin charitable foundation, and
for 40 years was a member and Chairman of the Clifton Water
Board.
At a judges conference in Reno he was one of the few to
bravely accept an opportunity to spend an eyeopening night in
the state prison. With no added security, he was mixed in with
the general population to better understand the people he had to
sit in judgement upon. He believed in trying to solve problems,
and one of his proudest accomplishments was working with
Senator Chet Enstrom, Representative Tillie Bishop, and Sheriff
Dick Williams to establish the first work-release community
corrections program in Colorado. But he still kept his boyish
sense of humor, making his theatrical debut as a prisoner,
costumed in stripes with ankle ball and chain, in the annual
Lion’s Club parade.
After Bill’s retirement from the bench he moved to Rogers
Mesa on the North Fork, partnered in Ela Family Farms, and
spent most of the rest of his life as a mediator, successfully
resolving many thorny cases.
Throughout his busy career, his love of the Colorado outdoors
was paramount. He was a founder and original Co-Chair of the
Riverfront Commission and was active with the Grand Mesa
Nordic Council, racing on his cross-country skis well into his
80s. His unbridled exuberance for outdoor adventure led him to
Ride the Rockies three times, to win his age category in his third
Bolder Boulder race at age 89, to complete the Imogene Pass
Run and to miraculously avoid certain doom on many a
toboggan ride down “Suicide Hill” on Grand Mesa, egging on
more sensible family members to follow. He prided himself in
crawling hands and knees through the brush to help children and
grandchildren catch their first fish on Coon Creek, somehow
surviving a rolling rockslide into Pierre Lakes, and
somersaulting down uneven slopes while trying to reach the
perfect trout pool on Kannah Creek. He climbed a number of
14ers, rafted many of the wild rivers of the West, and loved his
many backpack trips into the Elk Mountains, the Weminuche,
and the Flat Tops.
With a day off at a Reno conference he decided to go
backpacking even though he had no gear. Stuffing a hotel
blanket and some snacks into his brief case, he headed off into
the Yosemite backcountry, only to turn a corner and come face
to face with a naked backpacker. We wondered often who might
have been more surprised: Bill coming upon the naked man or
him encountering Bill in the wilderness in a suit coat, dress
shoes, and carrying only a brief case.
Probably inspired by cross country road trips in his youth with
his Aunt Hazel, Bill had the travel bug and with Shirley was
able to visit many parts of the U.S. as well as Costa Rica,
Panama, Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey and the
Galapagos Islands. In later years he loved nothing more than a
trip to the mountains to sit by a creek in the woods and absorb
nature. He became an avid star-gazer while honing his
navigation skills in the Navy and took great pleasure in pointing
out constellations. The ancient philosopher’s epitaph is fitting -
“for I have loved the stars too much to ever fear the night.”
He was predeceased by three of his brothers, Deke, Tom and
Wendell.
He is survived by his wife of nearly 70 years, Shirley; his
brother, Skip; his children, Beth (Jeff) Wilkens, Wendell
(Karen), Tom, Dan (Lynea) Schultz-Ela, and Steve; seven
grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
There will be no public memorial service, but the family would
appreciate receiving letters with memories of Bill from friends
and felons alike. Letters can be addressed to Ela Family Farms
at 30753 L Rd., Hotchkiss, CO, 81419.
In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing to the Goodwin
Foundation, P.O. Box 2106, Grand Junction, 81502 or another
appropriate charity.
