Diana Holland Shafroth, who said her life’s joy came from raising six raucous kids in a countryside home, died in that home Jan. 6 after a long illness. She was 80.
“We called her Mother Earth,” said longtime friend Tinka Kurtz, who raised four kids nearby. “She had an open-door policy. Her house was the gathering spot for all the kids.
“She was a terrific cook. She was always feeding the lacrosse team, the tennis team or passing trays of cookies and lemonade around the tennis court.”
Shafroth spent her life in the families of lawyers. Her father, Josiah Holland, founded Holland & Hart, now one of Denver’s more prominent law firms. She married John Shafroth Jr., a lawyer and grandson of John F. Shaf roth, a former U.S. representative, U.S. senator, governor of Colorado and founder of the law firm Grant Shafroth & Toll.
She attended Dora Moore Elementary School in Denver, Morey Junior High, East High, the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and graduated from Wheelock College in Boston. She returned to Denver, where she taught third grade until she married in June 1951.
“She once told me that what she really wanted in life was to get married and have six children, which is exactly what she did,” said her oldest daughter, Sydney Macy, Colorado director of The Conservation Fund.
The early Shafroth estate stretched from Belleview to Quincy avenues and from University to Colorado boulevards, and today encompasses Cherry Hills Farm, Glenmoor Country Club and a portion of Kent Denver School.
The Shafroths purchased a large barracks building from Buckley Airfield in 1953, moved it to the land and converted it into their home, where she lived until she died. Son Will Shafroth said she got a small inheritance, which she used to build the family a tennis court. Will Shafroth later won four state doubles championships while at Cherry Creek High School.
“We had a lot of independence. We were able to roam around, ride horses in the High Line Canal and make forts in the countryside,” Macy said.
The family bought a house in Aspen in 1963, which became a big part of their family life, she said.
Son Morrison “Mo” Shafroth told of when his mother joined him in London and toured Scotland and Eng land with him for a month. The trip began when his mother, confused about driving on the left side of the road, quickly turned into a dead-end alley, where the two laughed until tears flowed.
“That Mom’s passion for travel started in a dead-end alley is a lovely metaphor for her adventurous spirit, her ability to take life as it came, and to laugh at adversity,” he said.
John Shafroth Jr. died in 1984. Widowed and with her children grown, Shafroth began traveling to Europe, Thailand, Botswana, the Galapagos Islands and even the North Pole.
“She was a wonderful friend; we couldn’t imagine the world without ‘Lady Di,’ ” said Betty Taylor, who raised her own six children not far from the Shafroths.
Diana Shafroth is survived by her children, Sydney Macy, Will Shafroth and Morrison Shafroth, all of Boulder; John Shafroth of Centerville, Mass.; Tracy Shafroth of Evanston, Ill.; and Patrick Shafroth of Laporte; a sister, Penny Holland Foster of Mill Valley, Calif.; and eight grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Kent Denver School’s Student Center for the Arts, 4000 E. Quincy Ave. in Cherry Hills Village. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, 100 Puppy Smith St., Aspen, CO 81611.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
