Dan Straight started a campaign 30 years ago to get the Rollins Pass Road reopened so people could drive from Rollinsville to Winter Park.
He never succeeded, but he never gave up. The last letter he wrote pushing his project is still in his computer.
Straight was 84 when he died Feb. 7 in Longmont. He apparently got an infection after a pacemaker was installed, said his wife, Juanita Straight.
Dan Straight started and was the only president ever to serve the Rollins Pass Restoration Association, which solicited funds and lobbied officials to get the historic pass reopened.
He often wore a baseball cap that had the words “Never Give Up” imprinted on it. That is the slogan of the association.
With his wife’s help, the association mailed to 900 members four times a year.
The 23-mile Rollins Pass Road was open a few times but had to be closed when part of the tunnel, called the Needle’s Eye Tunnel, collapsed in 1979 and again in 1990.
The tunnel has been difficult to repair because of its 11,000-foot elevation and the rock mountains. Work has to be approved by three counties, Boulder, Grand and Gilpin, because the road goes through all three counties.
Straight’s belief in the mission to get the repairs done “was almost mystical,” said his daughter Kathleen Andreson of Albuquerque.
Straight served several years in the Air Force and then in the Reserve. During their marriage, the Straights moved 27 times, Juanita Straight said.
When he wasn’t on active duty, he taught math in Longmont area schools.
On at least one mission, in 1945, he carried his daughter Kathleen’s shoe in his pocket. It was a tiny pink cloth shoe. She was only 13 months old at the time, and he told people he carried it so his daughter would always be near.
Dan Elson Straight was born Oct. 8., 1922, in Greeley and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
He married Juanita Watson on Oct. 26, 1942. They had met in high school speech class.
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by another daughter, Su Eckhardt of Littleton; two sons, Tom Straight of Pulaski, Tenn., and Dan Straight Jr. of Highlands Ranch; 10 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and two step great- grandchildren.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
