Denver philanthropist Sue Anschutz-Rodgers, a member of a longtime ranching family and champion of rural communities, has been named the Citizen of the West for 2006.
The award, bestowed annually during the National Western Stock Show in January, is given to a person who exemplifies the spirit and determination of the Western pioneers. Previous recipients have included such prominent Westerners as Vice President Dick Cheney, the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White and former Colorado State University president Al Yates.
Anschutz-Rodgers, the elder sister of billionaire industrialist Phil Anschutz, is president and executive director of the Anschutz Family Foundation, which works to improve lives of the poor, young, elderly and the disabled.
Reared and educated in Kansas, she also is the owner of the prominent Crystal River cattle ranch near Carbondale, parts of which she has placed in conservation easements to protect it from future development.
Anchutz-Rogers has been involved in numerous charitable and community organizations, from the Boy Scouts to the Aspen Valley Land Trust to the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, and is the first woman to be appointed to the National Western’s nine-member executive committee. She has three daughters and nine grandchildren.
The award, now in its 28th year, will be presented during a Jan. 11 dinner that benefits a scholarship fund supporting grants to agribusiness and rural medical students in Colorado and Wyoming. For details, call the stock show at 303-297-1166.
