Jeanne C. Bolton

1937 – 2017

Jeanne C. Bolton, born in Sheridan, Wyoming in 1937, left this earth seventy-nine years later on March 6, 2017.

She beat the medical odds for the last 15 years of her life, and it will surprise no one who knew her that she left just as she planned ¾  in her home with family attending. During her working career she was a bank teller, a science teacher, a passive solar home designer, a brick salesperson, and an artist’s representative.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in 1970 from the University of Wyoming, having completed three years of school in two, while raising her three grade-school age children. After that she taught science for 10 years at Bill Reed Junior High, coached the girl’s track team, sponsored the ski club and maintained high expectations for her students.

As a sales person for Robinson Brick and Denver Brick she covered a multi-state area and obtained her pilot’s license to visit her clients. Never one to let circumstances get in the way, when her car was in the shop one day she rode her Italian scooter from Berthoud to Laramie and back to see a client along U.S. 287 sharing the two-lane road with high winds and 18-wheelers. After building her own passive solar house with her husband Chris, she designed houses for other people, utilizing rammed-earth mass walls, and solar panels with wood stove backup for heat.

Always up for an adventure, she rode bicycles to the west coast several times, climbed Long’s Peak with her children, ventured to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and scuba-dived the reefs around Cozumel, Mexico. Artisan textiles were an interest for which she raised sheep, sheared, spun and dyed their wool and wove the garments. Her vegetable gardens in the 1980s and 1990s were robust and productive.

Recently, the project which gave her the most joy in her life was her grandchildren. Several of them lived with her for a time, she took them on trips to Canada, Oregon, Washington, D.C, and Mexico. Whether it was arranging riding lessons, ski trips, Wednesday morning waffles, or after school snacks her main theme was to have fun. In her last decade she helped found the Namaqua Unitarian Universalist Church in Loveland, and was a major force in the church buying its own building. She also helped found Wildfire Community Arts Center in Berthoud, Colorado and took great joy in watching her four local granddaughters dance at recitals.

She is survived by her former husband, Chris Bolton, children Elizabeth. (spouse Robert), son Randall, stepdaughters Becky and Beth (spouse Dan), grandchildren Amy, Stefan, Victoria, Iona, Julia, Katie, Skye, Heidi, Bolton, Landon, Bolton (yes, two grandsons with that name) Erin, Morgan and Madison, great grandchildren Layla, Taylor and Serenity; sister Susan.

She is predeceased by her parents Paul and Dorothy Hill, her son William Gregory Lamb.

A memorial service will take place on Sunday, April 30th, 2017, at 2 p.m. at the Namaqua Unitarian Universalist Church located at 745 E. 5th Street, Loveland, with a reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made the Namaqua Unitarian Universalist Church in Loveland, Colorado or Wildfire Community Arts Center in Berthoud, Colorado.