Beverly Lowe Goodrich
1965
How to sum up the last 50 years? It doesn’t feel like that long does it?
After Cleveland, I went to San Fernando Valley State College for my freshman year. But I really wanted to spread my wings, so I transferred to Colorado College in Colorado Springs where I spent the next three years. Being away at college, instead of living at home, was just what I craved and I enjoyed campus life and the challenge of an academically rigorous school. Great classes, great profs, great friends and adventures. I majored in anthropology with a long-range plan to eventually work in a museum, and graduated in 1969.
From there I went to CU in Boulder to work on a Master’s in anthropology with a minor in museum studies. (Museology). Along with my regular course work, I took all the Egyptian archeology classes I could take (including hieroglyphics) because it was so much fun and when would I ever get such an opportunity again? I drove my advisor crazy. At CU I met my future husband, Mark, who was finishing pharmacy school. He graduated a year before I was due to finish and he took a job in Grand Junction, CO., where his family lived. At that point, I’d finished all my museum classes but not all the anthro, and decided I didn’t want to do a long-distance romance, so I left school and moved to Grand Junction with Mark. We arrived on the Fourth of July weekend in 1971 and a week later I had a job at a bank. A month after that I was hired as the Assistant Director of the Museum of Western Colorado (now The Museum of the West) and about a year later I became the Director. A highlight of those years was organizing a successful campaign to fund the museum with a county levy so that it could grow into the future.
In 1972 Mark and I got married in Boulder and then came back to G.J. to our jobs and our first house – where we stayed for 32 years.(Does anyone do that anymore?) Before we began our family, we had our first experience of international travel with a study tour in Egypt that included a cruise up the Nile with an Egyptologist. For me, a dream come true!
We came home and I promptly got pregnant with our oldest daughter, Karen (1976) and when she was 18 months old, I “retired” from the museum to be a stay-at-home mom for a while. Our son Grant was born three years later and when he was six months old I went into business with a friend selling Doncaster – a line of really nice women’s clothes. During my time with Doncaster, we had another daughter, Mara, and I also managed to squeeze in some artwork; illustration work mostly, for our church and for the Diocese of Pueblo. Busy and fun years!
But by the time Mara came along I was restless with the clothing business and more and more involved in our church. Sooo – I quit the clothing business and went back to grad school at Regis University in Denver and in 1991 graduated with a Master’s in Adult Christian Community Development, which is a broad degree for primarily for lay ministers. Instead of a thesis, each of us had to create a project to fill a need within our own communities. Mine was to collaborate with the four Catholic churches in our valley to create the Grand Valley Peace & Justice Office serving the Catholic community and the larger community through education, service, and advocacy. I became its first director and for the next 13 years, life was very interesting!
Work included public speaking and teaching on Catholic Social Teaching, bringing in national speakers for the larger community, and leading yearly trips to Nogales, Mexico to live with the poor in the shacks on the hillsides, build relationships with people, learn about their lives, and help them build solid houses with the help of Habitat for Humanity. Mark and all our kids ended up participating through those years. For three years of this time, I also served as the part-time Western Slope Family Life Coordinator for the Diocese of Pueblo.
I “retired” from the Peace & Justice Office in 2003 to become the Pastoral Assistant at our parish, where I am still working. (And 25 years later, the Peace & Justice Office is still going strong – not bad for a class project!)
Our three kids are all married and the girls live in Grand Junction – which is good because they’re the ones with the five grandchildren. We are so proud of all of them! Karen did a stint with Up With People, then taught for a while and now is a professional photographer and has an Arbonne business. Mara was in banking for several years and now helps her husband with their property management business. Son Grant married his grad school French teacher. They both went on to get their Ph.D.’s at IU and are now teaching at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C.
Grant & Caroline instituted our “French connection” which has led us to France several times now, sometimes to visit her family, sometimes just on our own. My brother, George, goes with us on these trips and these have been truly wonderful. We are definitely Francophiles!
At the moment, I am still working, but Mark retired a year and half ago. He is spending his time learning French, perfecting his piano and photography skills, and whenever the weather is good (most days!) mountain biking or hiking. I always thought I would retire at age 70, but I will be 68 at the end of October and I’m beginning to wonder if I can wait that long. I’d like to pick up my French, and run more, do art again, and spend more time with the grandkids before they grow up!
We are really looking forward to the reunion. Now that we all have gray hair, its going to be hard to recognize people, so I am grateful for the stories and pictures that have been shared.
After Cleveland, I went to San Fernando Valley State College for my freshman year. But I really wanted to spread my wings, so I transferred to Colorado College in Colorado Springs where I spent the next three years. Being away at college, instead of living at home, was just what I craved and I enjoyed campus life and the challenge of an academically rigorous school. Great classes, great profs, great friends and adventures. I majored in anthropology with a long-range plan to eventually work in a museum, and graduated in 1969.
From there I went to CU in Boulder to work on a Master’s in anthropology with a minor in museum studies. (Museology). Along with my regular course work, I took all the Egyptian archeology classes I could take (including hieroglyphics) because it was so much fun and when would I ever get such an opportunity again? I drove my advisor crazy. At CU I met my future husband, Mark, who was finishing pharmacy school. He graduated a year before I was due to finish and he took a job in Grand Junction, CO., where his family lived. At that point, I’d finished all my museum classes but not all the anthro, and decided I didn’t want to do a long-distance romance, so I left school and moved to Grand Junction with Mark. We arrived on the Fourth of July weekend in 1971 and a week later I had a job at a bank. A month after that I was hired as the Assistant Director of the Museum of Western Colorado (now The Museum of the West) and about a year later I became the Director. A highlight of those years was organizing a successful campaign to fund the museum with a county levy so that it could grow into the future.
In 1972 Mark and I got married in Boulder and then came back to G.J. to our jobs and our first house – where we stayed for 32 years.(Does anyone do that anymore?) Before we began our family, we had our first experience of international travel with a study tour in Egypt that included a cruise up the Nile with an Egyptologist. For me, a dream come true!
We came home and I promptly got pregnant with our oldest daughter, Karen (1976) and when she was 18 months old, I “retired” from the museum to be a stay-at-home mom for a while. Our son Grant was born three years later and when he was six months old I went into business with a friend selling Doncaster – a line of really nice women’s clothes. During my time with Doncaster, we had another daughter, Mara, and I also managed to squeeze in some artwork; illustration work mostly, for our church and for the Diocese of Pueblo. Busy and fun years!
But by the time Mara came along I was restless with the clothing business and more and more involved in our church. Sooo – I quit the clothing business and went back to grad school at Regis University in Denver and in 1991 graduated with a Master’s in Adult Christian Community Development, which is a broad degree for primarily for lay ministers. Instead of a thesis, each of us had to create a project to fill a need within our own communities. Mine was to collaborate with the four Catholic churches in our valley to create the Grand Valley Peace & Justice Office serving the Catholic community and the larger community through education, service, and advocacy. I became its first director and for the next 13 years, life was very interesting!
Work included public speaking and teaching on Catholic Social Teaching, bringing in national speakers for the larger community, and leading yearly trips to Nogales, Mexico to live with the poor in the shacks on the hillsides, build relationships with people, learn about their lives, and help them build solid houses with the help of Habitat for Humanity. Mark and all our kids ended up participating through those years. For three years of this time, I also served as the part-time Western Slope Family Life Coordinator for the Diocese of Pueblo.
I “retired” from the Peace & Justice Office in 2003 to become the Pastoral Assistant at our parish, where I am still working. (And 25 years later, the Peace & Justice Office is still going strong – not bad for a class project!)
Our three kids are all married and the girls live in Grand Junction – which is good because they’re the ones with the five grandchildren. We are so proud of all of them! Karen did a stint with Up With People, then taught for a while and now is a professional photographer and has an Arbonne business. Mara was in banking for several years and now helps her husband with their property management business. Son Grant married his grad school French teacher. They both went on to get their Ph.D.’s at IU and are now teaching at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C.
Grant & Caroline instituted our “French connection” which has led us to France several times now, sometimes to visit her family, sometimes just on our own. My brother, George, goes with us on these trips and these have been truly wonderful. We are definitely Francophiles!
At the moment, I am still working, but Mark retired a year and half ago. He is spending his time learning French, perfecting his piano and photography skills, and whenever the weather is good (most days!) mountain biking or hiking. I always thought I would retire at age 70, but I will be 68 at the end of October and I’m beginning to wonder if I can wait that long. I’d like to pick up my French, and run more, do art again, and spend more time with the grandkids before they grow up!
We are really looking forward to the reunion. Now that we all have gray hair, its going to be hard to recognize people, so I am grateful for the stories and pictures that have been shared.
Myself, my husband Mark, our son and his wife...at our youngest daughter's wedding
All of us (again) plus my brother George, on vacation in Amboise, France
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Mark and I, with friends from Finland, at the Colorado National Monument (just outside of Grand Junction)
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Comments
Hi Bev, you sure have accomplished a lot in the past 50 years. Your anthropology studies are fascinating. You reached your goal of becoming a museum director.
All the while you managed to raise a lovely family with your husband Mark, and are still very involved in your community and church. I don’t know if life gets much better than what you have achieved. All the while you have traveled the world.
You are right that many people don’t put down roots for over 30 years in one place.
Grand Junction, Colorado is a nice place. Cindy and I traveled through Grand Junction on several occasions on our way to see her family in Iowa. A few times we stayed overnight, going or coming back on our trips. I would always look in the phone book, (Do they still have them?), to see if you and Mark were still in town.
It will be a pleasure to talk with you and Mark again at the 50th. And “ Hi” to your brother George. I will always remember him as “George the bathtub monster” from your Halloween parties at your Bryant St. home in the old neighborhood.
Dick Eyster
Hey Bev! Loved reading your history. Made me smile to see how many others have come to know and love your sweetness and smarts. Loved the part about your French Connection. Nice! See you on The GCHS Campus Tour.
Kirk Lamb
Kirk Lamb