Former lumber broker “Red” Nelson had such a passion for golf that even when he wasn’t playing, he was still cruising golf courses, gathering their official measurements.
Nelson, who died April 2 at 93, played golf until a month before his death. He and Chuck Schroer measured every course in the state between 1975 and 1990, said Ed Mate, executive director of the Colorado Golf Association.
At the time, there were about 150 courses.
Each course took five to six hours to measure, and it was all volunteer work on Nelson’s part, Mate said.
Nelson won more than 100 golf trophies and was one of the first members of Rolling Hills Golf Club.
His family joked that Nelson, who died the same day as Pope John Paul II, “will be up there teaching golf to the pope.”
Golfing friends said at his service, “Don’t ask the pope his handicap.”
Nelson was club champion seven consecutive years at Rolling Hills Country Club, said Jack Anderson, who played Nelson’s last round with him. In the past 10 years, Nelson played three or four times a week.
The club will name a cup for him.
Nelson wasn’t shy about giving advice to golfing partners, his theory being you were never to old to learn or too young to teach, said Todd Swickard, a grandson.
Nelson also played in World Senior golf tourneys and at golf courses around the world. He was on the Colorado Golf Association board of governors for almost 30 years.
Music was another passion of Nelson’s. He was in local bands for years, playing the clarinet and tenor sax, both of which he began playing as a child.
Venues included the Ship Tavern at the Brown Palace Hotel and small “joints,” said his daughter. One band he played in was the El Jebel Hillbilly Band, which raised money for children being treated in Shrine hospitals.
“He played often enough he could afford braces for my brother (Richard) and me,” said his daughter, Sharon Kidd.
Nelson and his four siblings were required to learn a musical instrument, said Kidd, who lives in Morrison.
Nelson once played in the band of famed trumpeter Harry James. In a show in New York City, he met Marcella Piper, who was dancing in the chorus line backing up Betty Grable. The two married Sept. 15, 1938.
Oscar W. “Red” Nelson was born in Chicago on Dec. 16, 1911.
For more than two decades, he owned the O. W. Red Nelson Lumber Co., a lumber brokerage firm in Wheat Ridge.
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. His son preceded him in death.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
