Former Gov. Bill Owens wanted a bipartisan turnout at the unveiling Wednesday of his dignified, oil-on-canvas portrait set to hang inside the state Capitol.
So the Republican figured out a way to coax Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff to say a few complimentary words at the ceremony.
He called him and started out, “Andrew, you know how you’ve always wanted to attend my public hanging in the Capitol?”
Owens, who spent 24 years under the gold dome as a state representative, senator, treasurer and then governor, was full of grins and jokes this week as state leaders said their final public goodbyes.
“The only job better than governor is being an ex-governor,” he told his successor, Bill Ritter. “I can say that after five months. It’s really, really true.”
Indeed, Owens’ post-gubernatorial career has been lucrative – he already has three private-sector jobs.
As vice chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group’s Greenwich, Conn., unit, he will travel the world looking for private- sector money for public airports, roads and ports.
He joined the University of Denver’s Institute for Public Policy Studies as a senior fellow. And Owens formed a commercial real estate investment venture with two businessmen.
Several Colorado leaders roasted the former governor during a banquet Tuesday night, where Attorney General John Suthers let everyone in on one of Owens’ secrets.
When talking publicly about a nemesis, Owens typically referred to the person as “my good friend.”
“Heaven forbid if he called someone his very good friend,” Suthers said, drawing laughs from many of the 300 politicians and community leaders at the dinner, which benefited DU.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper razzed Owens about the time he busted the mayor’s antique table and his attempt at throwing the first pitch at a 2004 Rockies opener.
“Bill’s pitch was high and way far to the right,” Hickenlooper teased.
And about that night when Owens leaned on a table of food and broke it? “We were not in any way inebriated, certainly not too inebriated to walk,” the mayor said.
Ritter joked that when Owens was governor, Ritter used to play a game called “If ever I were governor.”
“Then you get to be governor, and it’s not such a fun game,” Ritter said.
Owens’ portrait – a 2½- by 3-foot painting of him standing in a library – will hang in the Capitol’s west foyer with the portraits of six other governors. The Capitol has held other paintings of governors, but those were returned to their families.
Denver artist Bob Olson painted Owens using several pictures, which captured shadows on his face and jacket, from Colorado photographer Donn Bruns.
Denver businessman Bryant Martin paid for the portrait. He declined to say how much it cost.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
