Terence “Terry” J. Outing, who died Sept. 21 of a heart attack at age 73, was a master welder by trade, but his heart lay in scavenging through garage-sale and thrift-store merchandise, hunting for prizes to sell at his Lafayette antiques booth.
Born and raised in Halstead, England, he was the only child of Percy and Lily Outing. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1964 with his first wife, Doreen Smith, and their young son, Steve, settling in Denver.
Living for the first time in a place too vast to cover strictly by bicycle or public transit, Outing learned to drive. He found the car useful for transporting the eclectic structures he welded for fun during slow periods at Gardner Denver and later at the Denver Labor Center.
One year after marrying his second wife, Jane McDonald, Outing became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1976, and enjoyed the additional ceremony of citizenship acquired during the United States’ bicentennial.
While he still thought of himself as an Englishman, Outing ardently embraced the American ideals as embodied by the AFL and CIO labor unions.
He closely followed local and national politics, never hesitating to fire off a letter to the editor when his views dramatically clashed, or uncannily echoed, with something he read or saw. Outing cherished his memories of serving as a delegate to the Democratic Convention at the state and county levels.
His innate frugality prompted Outing’s interest in secondhand goods. As he sorted through displays in thrift stores and on various lawns throughout town, Outing began collecting furniture, historical posters, old pictures, British memorabilia and other abandoned keepsakes he found engaging.
By the time he retired, Outing accumulated enough unusual bibelots to run his own booth at a flea-market collective in Lafayette. Regular patrons sought him out for conversation as well as curiosities, enjoying the political commentary whose liberal Democratic content poured forth with such a plummy English accent.
In 1986, after much goading from a friend who enjoyed bicycle touring, Outing joined the 1,500 cyclists on the maiden Ride the Rockies bicycle tour and became enamored of bicycle touring. He returned five times, including four tours riding a tandem with his wife.
His athletic build made him perhaps the fittest adult in an extended family that included five stepdaughters. The only disadvantage, Outing found, occurred at Christmas. He required extra padding to cut a convincing figure as Santa Claus, though his son suspected that Outing’s British accent gave away the game to the grandchildren and schoolchildren entertained by his annual visits.
Survivors include his wife, Jane, of Lakewood; son Steve, Boulder; stepdaughters Carren Williams, Lafayette, Connie Jones, Lakewood, Cleta Murley, Lakewood, and Nancy Arnold and Mary Marlow, both of Aurora; 19 grandchildren; and 7 great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
