People rarely said “no” if Pam Durr asked them to be involved in a project.
“She had a way of drawing people in with her warmth and vitality,” said Spud Van de Water, who worked in public policy with Durr.
Durr died March 24 after emergency heart surgery. She was 70.
A service is planned at 2 p.m. April 27 at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science’s Ricketson Auditorium.
Durr worked for various education agencies and groups. She was executive director of the Education Foundation in Adams County District 12, directed adult education and was communications director there.
“She was a taskmaster and totally focused, but she had a way with people that made them absolutely love her,” said Jim Mitchell, former superintendent and her boss in Adams County.
Durr also was consultant to the Colorado Department of Education and to the Governor’s Office on Education Policy.
The Education Foundation generated more than $500,000 for the school system, Ann Lederer said.
Durr was associate director for Agenda 21, a million-dollar project that brought together “the most diverse gathering of education people” ever held in the state, Van de Water said.
The 400 people came up with recommendations for consideration by the legislature and then-Gov. Roy Romer.
Durr “had the network to get people involved,” said Van de Water. “If Pam was involved, people would come.”
“She loved kids and was always interested in them,” said her husband, William Burford.
She traveled the state speaking to parents in rural areas, trying to get them more involved in schools, Burford said.
Durr’s avocation was ceramics, and she was known for the unusual bowls she made. Each Christmas she displayed her work and the work of other artists at her home, said Sue Combs of Abiquiu, N.M.
“She was a tall, elegant woman with sparkling blue eyes,” said Combs. “She got along with everyone, but she wasn’t goody-goody. She could be irreverent.”
Artist Sharon Bond Brown said Durr “was a fabulous ceramicist” whose artwork was always “user friendly.” She was “also a brilliant hostess. She was the kind of person who fit in anywhere,” Brown said.
Pam Durr was born in Rock Island, Ill., on Nov. 25, 1938, and graduated from the University of Iowa. She earned a master’s at Arizona State University and did graduate work at Stanford and Denver University. She taught middle school and art education at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
Inside. Paid obituaries are on Page 9B.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
