“Don’t even start with the Dorthy jokes,” is what I quickly learned to say to the inhabitants of my new home, Telluride, in the early years. Although, at one time, it was probably 1972, there were probably 30 people living in Telluride from Kansas. Of the original 30, there are still three of us left, Robbie Melzer and Page Smith and myself, interestingly enough, we all arrived in Telluride in 1971 in the same vehicle.

John Roth and Byron Curfman arrived soon afterwards and are still living here, well anyway, I don’t want to hear about Todo either.
When I was growing up in Wichita, Kansas, I never met anyone from New York before either. Now it seems that a lot of my friends are from New York.

So, I really am from Kansas and a Kansas boy in many ways to this day. My family owned an appliance repair shop and were farmers. My father was born and raised in Wichita and flew bombers in WWII. His plane was shot down bombing Dresden, one of the worst war atrocities in history and I know he lived with the war memories his entire life.

LEAVING KANSAS FOR ASPEN

I was taught hard work, honesty, integrity, and responsibility at an early age. By example, my family paid their way and then some, took care of their neighbors and then some, volunteered for service to their community and then some, and believed that they could not succeed if first their friends and community did not succeed. My family was involved in politics and were part of the inner circle that ran Alf Landon for President twice against Franklin Delano Roosevelt and finally got their President when Dwight Eisenhower was elected. The family was out of politics by the time Bob Dole ran for President, but he owed his start in politics to the family political machine.

I was suppose to get involved in politics, as the saying goes, “They had big plans for me,” instead I moved to Telluride as soon as I graduated from the University of Kansas. My family, ultimately, thought I made the right decision.

Wichita was an interesting place to grow up. The John Birch Society and the Libertarian Party were both started in Wichita during my school years and Ron Hubbard lived there and it was one of the places where Scientology was born. Classmates included: Kristi Alley, Don Johnson, Joe Walsh and our current Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates. Wichita was an incubator for the aircraft industry and Beech Aircraft, Cessna Aircraft, Boeing Aircraft, and Lear Jet Aircraft were all started in Wichita and Pizza Hut was started there by two brothers, Dan and Frank Carney. Koch Industries is still headquartered in Wichita and the entrepreneurial spirit there is extraordinary. Everyone you know has an idea they are working on and a lot of them seem to work.