I was born and raised in Aspen. My father was a 10th Mountain Division skiing and mountain-craft instructor for Mountain Training Group. He saw combat as a squad-leader in the famously horrendous battles in the Italian Appenines. My mother Jony, who still lives in the valley, was an avid skier and climber, a journalist and is still an artist and devoted grandmother. My grandfather, an engineer in Denver, helped design Aspen’s #1 Chairlift, which my father later helped to construct. Having attended the Goethe Bicentennial in Aspen, and having met her hero Albert Schweitzer, my grandmother advised my skiing-obsessed parents that, “The only ski-town with a future is Aspen.” So they moved here in 1950. My parents started a ski lodge called the Edelweiss and my father was the sole operator of the Chamber of Commerce in the early 1950s, promoting Aspen's skiing during the resort's infancy. He also taught skiing for the 1950 Aspen Ski School, and he built and sold houses.
I live in Brush Creek Village along with my wife Maureen and twin daughters, who attend Aspen Middle School. My wife has had her own travel and lifestyle communications agency for more than 15 years. I am a producer, director and cameraman for TV. I have had a fulfilling career focused on the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge that has taken me all over the world.
My educational background includes an engineering degree from the University of Colorado with minors in business and filmmaking, which became my career. For my directing and camerawork I won three national Emmy awards, sharing those honors with creative and brilliant collaborators.
For our community, I have served on the boards or advisory boards of local non-profits, including Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES). For more than six years, I helped build a powerful board of trustees, attract major donations, and helped begin the smooth transition to a new CEO. I served on Pitkin County’s Healthy Rivers and Streams Advisory Board, from its founding until last fall. I also served for Aspen Public Radio Advisory Board. I know our community well, having made many biographies and documentaries for and about local non-profits, including The Aspen Institute, Music Festival, Challenge Aspen, and the Aspen Hall of Fame.
I hope my children and their friends will grow up having the incredible healthy environment and opportunities my childhood in Aspen offered me. That is my motivation for joining our Board of County Commissioners.