Cowboys sure know how to rope and ride, but tell a Guernsey from a Holstein?
Better leave that to a couple of cow boys — two words is correct — like Dick and Eddie Robinson, the dairy-running brothers who on Wednesday accepted the Stetsons and branding irons symbolizing their shared title of Citizen of the West for 2009. The gifts were given at a dinner that raised $120,000 for the National Western Scholarship Trust.
President George W. Bush sent his congratulations in a letter read by master of ceremonies Bob Malone; Gov. Bill Ritter and Mayor John Hickenlooper delivered theirs in person.
It all boiled down to this: From the way they do business to the way they give back to the community, the Robinsons do things right.
“You have achieved the American Dream — and you did it the right way,” observed Malone, chairman of Steele Street State Bank and a 25-year Robinson-family friend. “It is so refreshing and uplifting to look at this very good company (Robinson Dairy) run by these very good men. You guys are the gold standard.”
Milking it
The 800-plus guests dined on beef filet and chocolate tarts topped with a scoop of Robinson Dairy vanilla ice cream at tables decorated with white-rose- filled milk pails; party favors were tiny milk bottles.
“I mean, how wholesome is it when you walk into a big room like this and there are milk bottles on the table?” Hickenlooper asked.
For the official photo, Fred Larkin had the brothers pose beside a Robinson Dairy delivery truck, wearing paper hats that dated to the 1940s. “None of us wanted a picture that was all stiff and formal,” Larkin said.
VIPs galore
Whatever the reason — to celebrate the honorees, to encourage the next generation of agribusiness leaders, or to acknowledge the significant impact the National Western Stock Show has on the community — everyone who is anyone makes attending the dinner a priority.
There are politicians: Peter Groff, Terrance Carroll, Michael Bennet, Wayne Allard, Brandon Shaffer, Wellington Webb, Ed Tauer, Mike Coffman and Charlie Brown, to name but a few, plus such former honorees as Bill Coors, Ben Houston, Dan Ritchie, Al Yates, Marvin Beeman, Sue Anschutz-Rodgers, Hank Brown and members of the Grant and True families.
Presidents and chancellors of the colleges and universities that have National Western Scholars were there too, along with representatives of the Round-up Riders of the Rockies, who started Citizen of the West in 1978, and the 2009 “rodeo royalty.”
Brooke Fox and Pete Coors chaired the event with help from an arrangements and steering committee, including Jerry McMorris, Marcy Benson, Pat Grant, K.K. Ciruli, Andy Love, Carolyn Schaefer Wollard, Will Nicholson Jr., Baba Bosworth, Buck Hutchison, Nancy Petry, Tim Travis, Brandis Becky Pelletier, Ben Houston and Barb Page.
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com.
