Robert Gene "Bob" Beverly
Marriages
Vivian Likely - June 26, 1949
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 1A Article - May 9, 2019
Bob Beverly died as perhaps the last living founder of the Powderhorn ski area. But that, it turns out, was but one of a lifetime of accomplishments By DUFFY HAYES Duffy.Hayes@gjsentinel.com
Call of the mountains
PHOTOS SPECIAL TO THE DAILY SENTINEL Left: Three-year-old Bob Beverly photographed in Steamboat Springs, circa 1926. The photo is believed to have been taken by Claude Beverly. Older brother Elton’s boot is also visible. Right: Beverly, at the age of 83, in the yard of his Grand Junction home.
Beverly died Feb. 15, as possibly the last living key figure behind the foundation of the ski area. But Powderhorn was just one of many ambitions Beverly achieved over an astonishing life lived to the fullest, in between those two photographs. Beverly died in February at 95, but his life began in the mountains near Steamboat, where as a child he and his older brother Elton charged the primitive slopes at the behest of their dad, Claude. Their skis were wood, and a Steamboat saddle shop made the crude leather bindings and toe straps that looped around the heel, according to Beverly’s daughter, Becky. In the winter they skied Howelson Hill, along Rabbit Ears Pass,
and on Storm Mountain, before it was named Mount Werner, much less Steamboat. In summers — well before backcountry adventure was as common, or informed, as it is now — Elton and Bob climbed the then rudimentary routes up Mount Zirkel and Hahns Peak. Their dad helped them make their packs — wooden frames with sheepskin added to pad the shoulders, as Beverly’s son Kent described. They brought blankets and a tarp; no sign of sleeping bags in the ’30s.
“It was a real adventure for them to go out and do that,” Kent said, of the exploratory pair. The connection formed in his youth, with the immense majesty of the mountains, would guide Bob Beverly through the entirety of his life. He brought a love of skiing and ski racing to the University of Denver, wrapping others in his enthusiasm. He began the Pioneers ski club, organized rides on the ski train, and pressed for the school to make ski
racing a minor sport. Before college, he raced the downhill during Winter Park’s opening day in 1939, and for the rest of his life was often an official or course setter at races around the state. “Think about driving from Steamboat to Winter Park … in 1940 — the cars, the roads. That’s what baffles me,” Becky Beverly said. Beverly’s junior year was interrupted by World War II. He and a friend enlisted in the Naval Reserve, and he served in the Pacific aboard a communications support ship. While he didn’t see action, his number was next to be called,
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 8A Article continued - May 9, 2019
family members said. When he returned to DU, he returned to skiing as well as his studies, ending up as one of two people to receive the first letters in skiing awarded by the school. After graduation, he continued to work with the NCAA to have skiing sanctioned as an official sport, which happened in 1953. Following school, Beverly also set out on an accomplished career as a mining and environmental engineer. He met his wife Vivian at Anvil Points, was a manager at the uranium processing pilot plant at the Atomic Energy Commission compound in Grand Junction, and worked for Union Carbide until 1986. An expert speaker and toastmaster (of course), he presented technical papers around the world, and was vice chairman of Colorado’s first Air Quality Control Commission, appointed to the post by Gov. John Love. When he got the job with Union Carbide, Bob and Vivian bought a house in Junction “and never left,” according to family. “He knew how much he loved the mountains, and that this was going to be his home,” Becky Beverly said.
POWDERHORN Kent and Becky learned to ski at the old Mesa Creek ski area — the sledding area that people today call Old Powderhorn, just up the road from
the current resort. Their dad was on the board of the Grand Mesa Ski Corporation, started the first National Ski Patrol on Grand Mesa, and enthusiastically taught ski school on the weekends at the rustic hill, which claimed a rope tow and platter lift, a coal stove warming hut and separate men’s and ladies outhouses. But Beverly always had an eye on the Big Beaver Creek Basin just to the west. About sixth-grade age, Kent recalled meandering the woods where Powderhorn is now with his dad, who was flagging aspen trees. Kent — who was “just a little kid running around through the woods” then — realized later that his dad was marking Sidewinder, now known as Bill’s Run, following the untimely death of fellow founder Bill Foster. Becky, just a girl then, recalled an early trail map on her family’s kitchen table, with her dad and others working on names for runs — Sidewinder, Equalizer, Peacemaker — following the area’s original rowdy Western theme. The name Powderhorn itself is a nod to the muzzleloader, and gunpowder, rather than dustings of fresh snow. Both Becky and Ken laughed about how people mocked their dad’s idea to call the new ski area Beaver Creek, after the surrounding basin, calling the name “stupid.” Bob Beverly, ever the engineer, had also been scouting the snow, and terrain, and scrutinizing the best spot to build a lodge and lift with precise measurements. When the highway department announced plans to swing the main road right near the spot, the true believers from Mesa Creek were spurred to action to make Powderhorn a reality. A stockholder-held company was formed, and shares of the resort were sold to community members. Beverly — a passionate pleader for the idea — spent a few years raising money, selling the vision he saw in the Big Beaver Creek Basin. “Dad used to joke that they would tell everybody that bought a share, they’re probably never going to get any return on this, but you’re going to have a place to ski,” Becky Beverly said. Indeed they did, and we do, as Powderhorn officially opened for business in 1965, and survived some dodgy early years to become the Grand Valley stash that it is today. “There should be something named after dad up there,” Becky said. “It should be Racer’s Edge,” Kent adds. Beverly — described by Becky as “super enthusiastic, outgoing, but real humble,” among other superlatives — was a member of both the University of Denver Athletic Hall of Fame and the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame. SHARED ASCENTS The perfect complement to Beverly’s accomplished winter legacy was a life spent climbing, not for achievement but out of appreciation for the awesome majesty of the mountains, something he spent a lifetime ebulliently sharing with others. Kent said his dad was perhaps most proud of beginning the Western Slope chapter of the Colorado Mountain Club in 1950, which enabled him to take so many people climbing. “He had a reverence for the mountains that a lot of people don’t have anymore,” Kent said. “They’re otherworldly, almost. They’re to be treasured.” Though he never climbed for stats, Beverly bagged all of Colorado’s 14ers, hiked the Inca Trail, climbed Chichen Itza on the Yucatan, negotiated Australia’s Ayers Rock, circumnavigated the heavenly Annapurna in Nepal, trekked to Everest base camp, and climbed the highest peak of his life, the 18,500-foot Kala Patthar in Nepal, at the age of 63. He and Vivian traveled the world, and Beverly meticulously photographed and cataloged his adventures, something that dated back to his childhood, when he brought his trusty Brownie camera on his backcountry adventures with Elton. Becky said her dad skied up until the age of 89, never missing a ski season. You can almost picture Bob floating down some snowy face, even as an octogenarian. “He was this effortless, beautiful carver,” she said. “It wouldn’t matter if he was on something hard or something easy, he just had the most beautiful, effortless style, with his skis right together.” Effortless.
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 3D Obituary - May 5, 2019
Services for Bob Beverly will be held at 10:00 a.m. Friday, May 10, at the First United Methodist Church with a reception immediately following, military honors at 1:00 at Palisade Cemetery, and a gathering of family and friends at the Ale House from 2:30 - 5:00 to celebrate his life. If you wish, please make donations in his name to the Eureka! McConnell Science Museum at CMU to honor Bob’s love of science and learning. A big thank you to Shelly and Mary with Elite Care and the staff at The Commons for your loving care of Bob these last two years.
The Daily Sentinel page 3D Obituary - March 17, 2019
Robert G. Beverly May 21, 1923 - February 15, 2019
Robert Gene Beverly was born to Claude and Ruth Beverly in Steamboat Springs where he was raised with his older brother, Elton. Bob learned to ski as a young boy, participated in high school football, basketball and track, played French horn in Steamboat’s original skiingmarching band, and was valedictorian of his senior class. He attended the University of Denver on an Alumni Scholarship. His college education was interrupted when he joined the US Naval Reserve during WWII. He received electronic technician training, attended Midshipman’s School at Columbia University where he received his commission, and served in the Pacific Theater as a Communications Officer Lieutenant Junior Grade aboard the USS Brule. With his honorable discharge, he returned to DU, where he received a BS in Chemical Engineering in 1947. After a short stint with Allied Chemical in Buffalo, NY, Bob returned to his beloved Colorado in 1948, and worked for the Bureau of Mines Oil Shale Demonstration Plant at Anvil Points as Assistant to the Chief. At Anvil Points, he met Vivian Likely, a secretary in the engineering department, and married her in Rifle on June 26, 1949. They were together for 68 wonderful years. Becky was born in Glenwood Springs in 1953. The family then moved to Grand Junction, where Bob and Vivian lived the remainder of their lives. Kent was born there in 1955. In 1954, Bob was employed as Manager by National Lead Company at the uranium processing pilot plant on the AEC compound. He then worked for Union Carbide in charge of their radiation control program. This work led to the environmental field and Bob became Director of Environmental and Public Affairs for the Mining and Metals Division. In this position he traveled extensively overseeing the environmental programs at 20 plants in 12 states. He presented over 100 papers at technical meetings in the US, as well as Europe and Australia, and had more than 20 papers published on environmental matters in the mining industry. Governor John Love appointed Bob as Vice Chairman of Colorado’s first Air Quality Control Commission and he served as Chairman of the Governor’s Radiation Advisory Committee. He retired from Union Carbide in 1986, and continued working as a consultant in environmental and public affairs. Bob was a member of the Society of Mining Engineers, AIME, the American Mining Congress, the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, the Wyoming Mining Association, Director Emeritus of the Colorado Mining Association, and a Director of the Petroleum and Mining Club. He was active in and chairman of Club 20. He volunteered for many years at the Western Colorado Math and Science Center sharing his love of science with children. As a result of Bob’s interests in skiing, hiking, and mountain climbing, his family became outdoor enthusiasts and enjoyed being with him on a Colorado ski slope, a forest trail, or one of Colorado’s 14’ers. He founded the Western Slope Group of the Colorado Mountain Club in 1950. His nearly 70-year membership was one of CMC’s longest. He climbed all 54 14,000 foot mountains in Colorado and, taking relatives and friends on his favorite climbs, repeated 20 ascents of 14’ers. At age 63, Bob climbed his highest peak, 18,514 foot Kala Patthar, in Nepal. While at DU, he promoted collegiate ski racing and was instrumental in the University adopting skiing as a minor sport in 1943. He received one of the first two letters in skiing awarded by DU. Working as Chairman of the National Ski Association’s Collegiate Committee, he was instrumental in getting the NCAA to sanction skiing as an official sport in 1953. In 2010, Bob was inducted into the DU Athletic Hall of Fame. He continued to be active in ski racing as a certified race official and course setter in Colorado and Wyoming for FIS, collegiate, and junior races. He was honored for this work receiving the Halstead Memorial Award in 1995 given by the Rocky Mountain Division of the USSA. He also trained ski patrollers and ski instructors at various ski areas. Bob was on the board of the Grand Mesa Ski Corporation which operated the old Mesa Creek ski area, established the first National Ski Patrol on Grand Mesa, and ran a weekend ski school at the old area. Bob explored the Big Beaver Creek Basin and did snow depth analysis in the bowl where Powderhorn would be built. Bob and his son hiked, identified and flagged many of the original trails at the new Powderhorn ski area which opened in 1965. He was on the Powderhorn Ski Corporation board for 22 years, several years as president, and helped in the planning and fund raising. He, along with Dave Edwards, started the Buddy Werner racing program at Powderhorn in 1968. The next year, they helped establish the School District #51 Learn to Ski Program. Many a local can tell stories of learning to ski with Bob Beverly. Bob’s contributions to ski racing, ski area development, ski patrolling, and ski instruction were recognized with his induction into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in 2000 as a Colorado Skiing Pioneer. He was greatly honored by this recognition. Bob learned to ski at age three and enjoyed the sport until age 89, never missing a season. Bob was an adventurous sort. He hiked the Inca Trail and rafted the Urubamba River in Peru. He cherished his trips to Nepal; circumnavigating Annapurna, playing London Bridge and giving crayons to the rural school children, trekking into Everest Base Camp, climbing Kala Patthar, and riding an elephant in Chitwan. He gazed in awe at Denali and rode the rapids of the Grand Canyon. Bob and Vivian cruised the Panama Canal, crossed the Arctic Circle, and traveled the world extensively. Bob’s wife and family were his greatest interests. They skied, camped, hiked and traveled together, taking family vacations all over the U.S., particularly in the West. Vivian and Bob were active participants in the lives, sports, and activities of their children and grandchildren. Bob’s love and appreciation of the great outdoors lives on through them. Bob is survived by his children, Becky Beverly and Kent Beverly, both of Grand Junction; grandchildren, Stephen Sell (Chloe) of Donnelly, Idaho, and Lauren Sell of Denver, and great-grandsons, Kane and Drake Sell of Ogden, Utah. Services will be held at the First United Methodist Church on May 10, 2019, at 10:00 with a reception at the church. Military honors will be at Palisade Cemetery at 1:00. A gathering of family and friends will follow. Donations in his name can be made to Eureka! McConnell Science Museum at CMU or the Colorado Mountain Club Program of Conservation: Stewardship/Trails.
