Travel

Art Guy | Obituaries | chaffeecountytimes.com – Chaffee County Times

Delbert Arthur Guy died peacefully on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022 in Pueblo. The probable cause was simply that, despite being a pretty energetic fella, 95 years was enough.

Happily, his kids Michael Guy, Chris Brown and Mary Guy Simmins; sons-in-law Padric Meagher and Tom Simmins; grandkids Natalie (Ryan) Murray and Emma (Aaron) Trainor; and great-grandkids Kason, Kane and Madi were all together with him earlier in December. He was delighted to hold the hand of his 5-week-old great-granddaughter.

Born Sept. 14, 1927 in Eastonville, he loved to tell stories of growing up on a farm in Black Forest, northeast of Colorado Springs.

He was married Dec. 21, 1950 to Elizabeth Ann Anderson of Colorado Springs, and in his last days they shared their 72nd wedding anniversary. After raising the three children in Colorado Springs, they relocated to the Buena Vista area in 1978.

As a family, we were lucky the patriarch understood it was his duty to lead the way through the stages of aging with macular degeneration which gradually took his sight. He decided not a minute too late to move himself and our mother out of the beautiful passive-solar house they designed and built with their own hands in Mesa Antero and into the town of Buena Vista. Seven years ago, he moved himself and Liz into assisted living in Pueblo when the challenges of living unassisted became too much.

He had voluntarily given up driving previously, even though van-camping across the U.S. and Canada, as well as many multiple times through Alaska, to see amazing scenery and wildlife was his great joy in life. He and Liz were regulars at the Mt Princeton Hot Springs where they met many wonderful friends while keeping their bodies limber and minds stimulated.

Before this, his eyes worked overtime — he shared his joy of travel photographing magnificent landscapes and tiny alpine flowers; searching the hills for minerals and crystals and petrified wood to cut and polish on his lapidary equipment; collecting the perfect pieces of wood to turn on his homemade lathe into bowls, lamps and Christmas ornaments.

By career he was a butcher in a market; by avocation he was so many other things! Gardener, hiker, fisherman, tinkerer — only sitting still to read books on travel, history, biology, geology, archeology and everything by Loren Eiseley, his spiritual hero.

We are grateful that he shared his interests with his family and friends. He was an ardent supporter of gay rights and marriage, racial equality, social justice, education and protection of natural resources. He will be missed immensely.

There will be a celebration of life and his love of the outdoors in warmer weather.