Those who know Sue Anschutz-Rodgers only by the descriptors “philanthropist” and “sister of billionaire Phil Anschutz” are likely to visualize her as a pearls-and-white-gloves kind of person whose idea of a wild and crazy time is lunch and an afternoon of cribbage at the country club.
That’s really not her thing, though, and even though her job as president of the grant-making Anschutz Family Foundation gives her access to boardrooms and bigwigs, the 2006 Citizen of the West would much rather be out mending fences or tending horses at her Carbondale ranch.
Anschutz-Rodgers accepted the coveted award at a $250-per-plate dinner held at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. The 900-plus guests dined on beef tenderloin and enjoyed a video tribute that traced the honoree’s many accomplishments. The money raised that night goes to the National Western Scholarship Trust.
The trust has 61 scholars at eight colleges in Colorado and Wyoming. Colorado State University has the most scholarships (24), while the University of Colorado School of Medicine has two students doing their residencies in rural medicine, three training to become physician’s assistants in a rural family practice and one first-year medical student in the Rural Track Health Program. The University of Northern Colorado has three scholarship recipients who are preparing for careers as rural health-care nurses.
Other colleges at which scholarship recipients are enrolled in agribusiness or healthcare fields are the University of Wyoming, Casper College, Northeastern Junior College, Lamar Community College and Laramie County Community College.
Brian McEndaffer, a 2003 graduate of Prairie High School in the Eastern Plains town of New Raymer, is a CSU student and represented the National Western scholars at the dinner. The scholarship, he said, enables him to continue his education while raising the cattle and hogs he exhibits throughout the area. He is studying agribusiness and agri-economics, and plans to attend graduate school.
Al Yates, a retired president of CSU, was Citizen of the West in 2002 and his successor, Larry Penley, served on the 2006 dinner’s steering committee. Penley’s wife, Yolanda, was a member of the function’s arrangements committee.
As arrangements committee chair Janie Hutchison oversaw plans for the dinner’s success. Nancy Petry, whose late husband, Nick, was Citizen of the West in 1986, headed the steering committee with veterinarian Robert Shideler.
Dan Ritchie, the 1998 Citizen of the West and immediate past chancellor of the University of Denver, was master of ceremonies and was joined by such other past honorees as Marvin Beeman (2005); members of the True family of Wyoming (2004); W.D. Farr (1999); Ben Houston (1995); and Rollin Barnard (1994).
The National Western’s chief executive, Pat Grant, was there with his wife, Carla (their family was honored in 2001) while Andy and Virginia Love represented his late parents, Ann and former Gov. John Love, the 1989 Citizens of the West.
Three members of the “rodeo royalty” – Miss Rodeo Colorado Tara Spencer, Miss Rodeo Wyoming Stacie Kline and Miss Rodeo USA Tressie Knowlton – were on hand to greet guests as they entered the Adam’s Mark Hotel; Knowlton is the immediate past Miss Rodeo Colorado and received the national crown during the National Rodeo Championships in Las Vegas.
Others dressing in their best Western duds for the occasion were Doug and Nancy Jones; University of Colorado President Hank Brown and his wife, Nan; John and Carole France; Ron and Cille Williams; Wes and Marty Segelke; Brown and Mardi Cannon; Lucy Kester; Bill and Joanne Sinclaire; Peter and Deedee Decker; Cort Dietler; Jeremy and Holly Arnold Kinney; and Pete and Marilyn Coors.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
