Donald Rothschopf built a home out of straw bales, made stained-glass creations and loved to give his friends odd gifts he’d carved.
Rothschopf made a living farming and ranching, the third generation of his family to farm in Colorado. He died in Grand Junction on April 17 of cancer and pneumonia. He was 69.
He started ranching in the Parker area and moved to the Crawford area, raising dairy cows, beef cattle and even some honeybees over his long career.
An early environmentalist, Rothschopf built a house using bales of straw.
The five-bedroom house, just outside Grand Junction, is 5,000 square feet and plastered on the outside and inside.
“The walls are 16 inches thick, so it’s perfectly insulated and noise-free,” said his wife, Betsy Rothschopf.
Rothschopf used a drip irrigation system to save water, raised weed-free hay and was active on the Douglas County Soil Conservation Board.
He worked in stained glass, depicting such items such as humming birds, irises, angels and even an airplane.
The plane was given to a longtime friend and former neighbor, Bud Elkins, now of Las Vegas.
Elkins said the plane, which has a 14-inch wingspan, also is a kaleidoscope. Rothschopf made an opening all the way through and then put stained glass in the front end, Elkins said.
His steel art includes a 4-foot-high image of a Kokopelli, the mythical flute player revered by some Native American cultures. The figure stands in Rothschopf’s garden.
Rothschopf made wine from chokecherries and grapes and did paintings and photographs of outdoor scenes. He loved to make whimsical things for friends, such as a mahogany plaque for Elkins showing a fisherman who has just cast his line, but the end of it is caught on the figure’s backside.
Donald Edward Rothschopf was born in Denver on April 26, 1939, and graduated from high school in Doug las County.
He met Elizabeth “Betsy” Szadaj at the Parker Methodist Church, neither of them realizing they had lived 10 miles from each other all their lives.
They married June 29, 1968, and farmed in the Parker area until moving to Crawford, near Delta. They retired in 2000 and moved to Grand Junction.
In addition to his wife, Rothschopf is survived by his daughters, Gretchen Rothschopf-Hostutler of Albuquerque, N.M., and Heidi Rothschopf of Parker; one grandchild; and his brother, Kenneth Rothschopf of Guymon, Okla.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
