Frank Curtis Abbott, who died at 85 on Aug. 17 in Boulder, created Colorado’s community-college system and orchestrated the consolidation of three institutions into the Auraria Higher Education Center.
Abbott finessed the physical logistics and the emotional transactions that put the University of Colorado’s Denver branch, Metropolitan State College of Denver and the new Community College of Denver on a single campus.
When the Auraria campus opened in 1977, the student population of 27,000 far exceeded the 15,000 that Auraria founders anticipated. Today, the campus accommodates more than 33,000 students, about a fifth of the state’s college students.
Educators lauded the Auraria center as a “unique solution” that served extremely diverse student populations and presented a national model, said Dennis Jones, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.
Abbott was born in Newtonville, Mass., and earned degrees in public administration from Cornell and Harvard universities.
In 1965, he moved to Colorado after being hired as the first executive director of Colorado’s Commission on Higher Education. His first accomplishments included creating the state’s community-college system and orchestrating the educational collaboration that became the Auraria campus.
In 1988, he established the Western Undergraduate Exchange, which established a program that drastically reduced tuition for Western students matriculating in 15 Western states. WUE estimated that by 2005, more than 20,000 students participated in the exchange, saving their families approximately $106 million.
Abbott retired from WUE in 1992 and immediately became the coordinator of the Compact for Faculty Diversity, a program preparing minority students to become college professors. The Compact, which coordinated three regional educational organizations, presented a situation that echoed the nascent Auraria campus.
“We all have our egos, all doing what we think is right for our region, and to make all these separate identities work under one umbrella was not always easy,” said Ansley Abraham, director of the Southern Regional Education Board. “He understood the importance of diversity, and he helped keep us – the three regional organizations – stay on track and focused.
“His graciousness in working with people was invaluable to all of us.”
Survivors include his wife, Lois Ann Abbott of Boulder; sons Curtis Abbott of Menlo Park, Calif., Kenneth Abbott of Asheville, N.C., and Paul Abbott of Tucson; daughters Jane Krumm of Twin Falls, Idaho, and Alison Quackenbush of Fram ingham, Mass.; and 10 grandchildren.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Sept. 9 at the Jefferson Unitarian Church, 14350 W. 32nd Ave. in Golden.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it incorrectly credited Frank Abbott with founding the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. He founded the Western Undergraduate Exchange.
