For a lot of his life, Nathan Kendrick just wanted to be alone.
So for most of the last 30 years, Kendrick was a hermit, living in caves, shacks and cabins west of Boulder and trading trout he’d caught for staples of life.
Kendrick, who was a “big- time character,” according to his caretaker, Rebecca Lawrence, died Nov. 18 in his trailer in Ward. He was 66.
Kendrick didn’t keep in touch with his family and didn’t work but was well-read and a good pianist, said Lawrence, who is a Boulder County Sheriff’s Office victims’ advocate.
In his dark blue oversize fur-trimmed parka, the bearded 6-foot tall man was a familiar figure hitchhiking along the Peak to Peak Highway between Estes Park and Allenspark.
Outsiders were afraid of him, but local people usually gave him rides. Sometimes they asked Kendrick to sit in their pickup beds — he wasn’t a devoted bather.
But he had a lot of friends. He’d come to town, pull trout or rabbits out of his pockets and sell or trade them for things he needed.
Townspeople gave him new parkas and boots. Some, like Rob Roy Ramey of Nederland, stopped in to visit and others brought him holiday meals. “He lived in a spartan place,” with only a small radio, rifles, wood stove, snowshoes and always coffee, Ramey said. Kendrick would tell people “only bits and pieces” of his past life, Ramey said.
Kendrick made tepee poles and sold them, but otherwise didn’t have a traditional job, Lawrence said.
He painted, drew chalk sketches and studied Civil War history, she said. She believed he audited classes at the University of Colorado.
“He was very well-read on the history and philosophy of religion,” she said.
But two years ago his emphysema was taking its toll, she said, “so we moved him into town and got a trailer for him.” She managed to get some monthly government help.
“He became a social butterfly after that,” said Pete Lawrence, Ward town marshal and husband of Rebecca Lawrence. “This is an understanding, forgiving and open town.
“People would stop by and visit him and bring him food,” said Pete Lawrence, adding that Kendrick “never gave us any trouble.”
Kendrick was overwhelmed with the sense of community he found in the past several months, Rebecca Lawrence said.
More than 100 people came to his funeral of which “about 80 percent was telling Nathan stories,” Rebecca Lawrence said.
Lawrence Noel (Nathan) Kendrick was born on June 18, 1944, in Chicago. He graduated from high school in New York City.
Little is known in the Ward area about his life before he moved to Colorado in the 1970s or about his family from whom he was estranged, said Rebecca Lawrence. “He just chose not to be in contact with them.”
Kendrick is survived by two sons: Christopher Kendrick Seipel and Strongheart David Loney; a sister, Judy Larrabee, of Fredericksburg, Va.; and a grandson and granddaughter.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to incorrect information provided to The Denver Post, the
names of Nathan Kendrick’s children were misspelled. His sons’ names are Strongheart David Loney
and Christopher Kendrick Seipel. Nathan Kendrick also is survived
by a granddaughter.
