Obituary of Denver Barb

Biography Denver Barb was born on January 30, 1921 in Alton, Kansas shortly before the family moved to Golden, Colorado so that his father, Clark F. Barb, could attend the Colorado School of Mines. At the age of 13, he and a friend started their own business shoveling rock and gravel for driveways and streets. He owned a 1921 truck which he drove while the local police looked the other way. They also shoveled malt for the Coors brewery, and for the rest of his life he could never tolerate the taste or smell of malted milk. While going to high school, he lied about his age and entered the National Guard at 14 and served on weekends to earn extra money He got away with it because his father, Clark, was a captain in the same unit. Denver was a great athlete in all sports in high school. He quarterbacked the Golden Demons for 3 years and took 2 state championships. He excelled in almost every track and field event, holding the State high hurdle record for 27 years. He was captain of the basketball team for 3 years and even played (illegally) for the Coors semi-pro team while still in high school. Even after moving to Limon he played town team basketball for many years. In 1943 he graduated from Mines with a degree in Petroleum Engineering and a commission of second lieutenant in the US Army Air Corps. He married Peggy Hoskins of Limon in March of 1943 and was sent to Yale for further training. At Yale, he and Peggy danced to the band of another Air Force officer named Glenn Miller. He was then sent to Harlingen, Texas where he helped design and set up an aircraft maintenance assembly line. With the war winding down, the Air Force noticed that he had taken some courses in metallurgy, so they sent him to Dayton, Ohio, and he ended up traveling all over the northeast inspecting weapons and packaging for long-term weapons storage. After World War II, Den and Peggy moved to Limon and joined the business started by Peggy’s father Ray B. Hoskins, Auto Service & Supply. The company at that time consisted of Texaco products, farm implements, auto repair, Firestone tires, and Napa auto parts. Denver sold Krause one-ways to dozens of local farmers. The family remembers Den constantly remarking as they drove the roads of eastern Colorado “I sold a Krause one-way to that fellow.” Denver made all the AAA wrecker calls, which always came on the darkest and snowiest nights. Their children began with Deidra born in 1947, Tony in 1950, and Denise in 1953. Denver was a long-range planner, and he could see the Interstate highway system starting in the East, ten years before it reached Colorado. He projected where the interchanges might be built, and using public information and his own projections he bought many raw land sites long before the highway arrived. These proved accurate and gas stations were built on these sites. The family remembers many times sleeping in the car after a trip to the city while Denver talked into the night with farmers about purchasing some little portion of farmland, which would later become an interstate interchange. Denver supplied motor oil and grease to all the heavy equipment constructing the interstate and was named Texaco’s Wholesaler of the Year for the entire United States. Denver was not afraid to adapt the business to changing economic conditions. The farm implements, mechanic repair shop, hardware, and auto parts business gradually gave way to a largely wholesale and retail gasoline and gift shop operation catering to the traveling public. Denver was active in Rotary and the Volunteer Fire Department. In 1976, Tony and Carol Barb entered the business and Den gradually took more time off, and had retired by the mid-1980's. At that time Deidra also joined the business. Denver loved to travel and was interested in all details of any subject at hand. He was a very detail-oriented person, often to the consternation of his family. If a job was to be done, it was to be done right. Tony can remember being taught that you started at the top left of a sheet of scratch paper and used the entire sheet when doing calculations. You never started in the middle of the page because that was not efficient and would waste paper. Barb household pencils were finally thrown away when they got down to an inch and a half and you could not hold it. In 1982, Denver and Peggy divorced amicably. Denver remarried to Leslie Holland in 1984 and they lived in southern California until 2002.They enjoyed traveling the world. He took long walks and kept physically active as long as possible. Den moved back to Lakewood, Co in 2010. Denver died in Lakewood on June 22, 2012 at the age of 91. He is survived by his first wife Peggy Foley, a sister Shirlee Walker, Deidra Barb and Tony (Carol) Barb, Denise (George) Newman, and four grandchildren, Tanya (Nick) Hanford, and Tricia Barb and David Newman and Elyse (Mark) Crimm. Memorial Service Monday July 9, 2012, 10:00 A.M. at Love Funeral Home Click for Map and Directions