Marshall Frasier, who ranched from age 8 until his late 70s, died of cancer May 3. Frasier, 81, had been in a hospice in Fort Morgan.
“He was an innovative rancher and a hard worker, without any fanfare,” said a friend, Gerald Schreiber of Last Chance in northeast Colorado.
Frasier “was a pioneer in holistic-resource farm management,” said his son Chris Frasier of Denver.
Frasier took measures such as leaving portions of the land fallow each year to spur regrowth.
He also established new ways to save water “so it would always be fresh,” as well as burying “miles and miles of water pipelines,” Schreiber said.
“And he did it all before the government began helping farmers do it,” Schreiber said.
Frasier was the Colorado Livestock Association president in 2000 and Livestockman of the Year in 1996, and he was inducted into the Colorado Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2002.
He was state school-board president in 1966, president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association in 1981 and a regional vice president in 1988.
“Marshall had the ability to bring factions together and get the job done. He was a quiet leader, not a chest-pounder,” Schreiber said.
After retiring, Frasier built two windmills. He found the metal pieces of antique windmills at a museum in Limon.
Using flat-stock wood, he was able to rebuild the windmills in the style of years past.
He kept one at his home and gave the other to the Limon Museum, Chris Frasier said.
Frasier, his father and his brothers donated land in Boulder in the 1960s to build the Frasier Meadows Manor, a senior-care facility, and Mountain View United Methodist Church across the street.
Marshall L. Frasier was born Oct. 11, 1926, on the family farm in Wallace County, Kan.
By age 8, he could drive a tractor and herd cattle.
Frasier graduated from Sharon Springs High School in Sharon Springs, Kan., and served in the Navy, stationed during World War II on the USS Elkhorn, an oil tanker.
By the time the war was over, Marshall Frasier’s father, Elmer Frasier, had bought the Hashknife Ranch south of Last Chance.
Marshall later bought a sandhills ranch north of Wray.
He married LaRue Bengtson, whom he met in high school, on June 4, 1955.
In addition to his wife, who lives in Woodrow, and his son, he is survived by two other sons: Joe Frasier of Limon and Mark Frasier of Fort Morgan; four grandchildren; and two brothers: Melvin Frasier of Boulder and Harold Frasier of Sharon Springs, Kan.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
