Bobbie Razee “was a tough little cookie,” said a longtime friend, Nikki Headlee of Watkins.
Razee, who died at age 96, had to be tough to run a construction company. She is believed to be the first woman in Colorado to do so.
A memorial is planned for her at 4 p.m. Friday at Park Place, 111 Emerson St., where she lived for several years.
Always a hard worker, she told a Denver Post reporter in 1967 that she didn’t approve of “goofing off, but I try not to blow up even though I have a pretty snappy temper. In business a tantrum is only a waste of time.”
“She was always in charge,” said her lawyer, Don Burkhardt of Denver. “She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, and if you stepped out of line, she let you know. But she was delightful.”
Razee’s take-charge ways were probably ingrained, said her nephew Brian Dougherty of Aurora.
She loved to entertain but never cooked.
“She had it catered. She had the contractor’s approach to life – everything could be subcontracted,” said Dougherty, laughing.
Razee, who was 5 feet tall, always wore silk dresses or nice suits and blouses, and 3-inch heels, even to the construction sites.
Razee was head of Newstrom-Davis Construction, which specialized in commercial buildings.
Her uncle, Paul Newstrom, started the business with Harold G. Davis.
They hired Razee in 1931 as a “secretary, receptionist, bookkeeper, payroll clerk and telephone girl” – all for $25 a week, she told the Post.
Davis called her “a right- smart girl” who picked up things fast and soon “knew more about the business than either one of us.”
In 1938 she became secretary-treasurer of the firm. She accumulated stock and eventually owned 60 percent.
Her uncle bought out his partner in 1944. In the 1960s, she became president.
The company built all 97 buildings at Buckley Field, the University of Denver fieldhouse, a building at Temple Buell College, the Mile High Kennel Club in Derby, and the Weld County hospital.
Razee never lost her feistiness. When she was carrying some food from the dining room at Park Place one night, a manager said, “You can’t do that.” Razee’s reply: “Watch me.”
Virginia Lucille Francis Dougherty was born in Denver on Oct. 5, 1910, and graduated from East High School. She studied business administration at DU.
She married Rush Razee in 1938. He had his own residential building company. They had no children.
She is survived by seven nieces and four nephews.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
