John Denver's death in October deeply saddened all of us at RMI. He was a good friend, a neighbor, and, in recent years, a member of RMI's Board and a partner in our successful effort to protect a fragile mountain valley. John's driving passions were the environment and human rights. He wasn't afraid to take stands before they became politically popular. His leadership and vision will be missed. As anyone familiar with his music knows, John had a special love for the Colorado mountains, so it's not surprising that our strongest connection with him was through the land.
In 1979, he bought and donated a 957-acre anch in Snowmass, Colorado to the Windstar Foundation, an environmental organization he'd co-founded three years earlier with aikido master Tom Crum. It is a special piece of land--a rare undeveloped remnant of bottomland and hillsides, rich in scrub oak and elk sedge and mountain mahogany, and providing critical winter range and a migration corridor for hundreds of deer and elk. By 1982, when RMI began building its headquarters about a mile down the road, the Windstar land had become a hub and a demonstration site for a bustling international organization.
On one level, the founders of RMI and Windstar couldn't have been more different--Hunter and Amory Lovins were more left-brained, John Denver more right--and this was reflected in the personalities and constituencies of our respective organizations. Yet we shared our goal of a sustainable future, a faith in human ingenuity and common sense, and a global perspective. Our styles and strengths were complementary. Indeed, many of RMI's staff got their start with Windstar. The relationship got closer in 1992, when RMI, needing office space for its growing research division, rented part of the Windstar ranch house. The arrangement worked out so well that in 1995, when the Windstar land came under threat, the two organizations joined forces to save it. The story of saving the Windstar land has been told in previous newsletters. As president of the Windstar Foundation, John played a key role in forging the partnership that placed the land under perpetual protection and transferred its title to a new independent entity, the Windstar Land Conservancy. John joined RMI's Board, and he, Amory, and Hunter filled three of the five seats on the Windstar Land Conservancy's
Board.
At the time of his death, John was happier than he'd been for years. One thing that was no longer worrying him was the fate of the Windstar land. John loved this land, recalls Hunter Lovins. It was a continual source of joy to him to know that the Windstar valley was finally protected. It'll be our memorial to him to be sure that it is. John's family has named the Windstar Land Conservancy as one of the organizations to which gifts in his memory may be made. Such gifts will help complete one item of unfinished business in John's dream for the Windstar land: the creation of a $1 million endowment for its permanent stewardship. As of late October, about $200,000 had been raised toward this final goal of RMI's $3 million Securing the Future campaign.
(copyright 1997, Rocky Mountain Institute)
If you'd like to make a contribution to the RMI, their address is:
Rocky Mountain Institute
1739 Snowmass Creek Road
Snowmass, CO 81654-9199