“The Little Newspaper with the Big Influence” Volume 31 • Number 21 • April 18, 2013
What’s Inside
Page 12
Little Hearts a heartwarming rite of spring
Page 16-17
South metro landscapes win Excellence in Landscape Award
Page 31
Mullen hosts 16th Annual Runners Roost Invitational
Don’t Miss:
pleads guilty to sex • Teacher assault Page 4 Metro Denver Chamber • South mounts BIG push for B.I.G. Day
•
Page 16 Strings closing brings to mind a host of memories Page 20
Index
Pages 5-6.........................................Opinion Page 8.........................................Classifieds Pages 12-19....................................Fleurish Pages 20-22.........................................digs Pages 23-28......................................Legals
TheVillagerNewspaper @VillagerDenver
Since 1982 303-773-8313 • Published every Thursday
www.villagerpublishing.com
Imhoff co-sponsors Remembering Walt benefit for pancreatic
Georgia Imhoff
I
By Peter Jones t is not difficult to find reminders of the late Georgia Imhoff in the Greenwood Village home she shared with her devoted husband of nearly four decades. As Walt Imhoff sits on a couch in front of a large portrait of the couple, one of Georgia’s two cats jumps on a lap – any lap will do. Georgia had acquired the rare-breed felines just months before she died in 2009. Walt tears up when he talks about his wife of 38 years. From nearly the moment the Imhoffs met at a singles party in the early 1970s, they were a classic love story and an inseparable presence in Denver’s world of charitable giving. By the time, Georgia was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the former nurse had become well known as a champion for abused and neglected children. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, according to the University of Colorado Cancer Center, and the toll is rising. The National Cancer Institute is forecasting more than 38,000 deaths this year. Although pancreatic cancer is among the disease’s most deadly forms and had spread to her liver shortly after her diagnosis, it was a fatal massive heart attack while the couple was staying at their condominium in Silverthorne that took Georgia’s life, wreaking havoc on her already weakened body. On April 25, Walt is co-sponsoring An Evening on the Wings of Hope, a benefit for pancreatic cancer research at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. The event at the Wildlife Experience was organized by former Castle Pines
cancer research
Retired investment banker Walt Imhoff sits in his Greenwood Village home near a portrait of himself and his wife, Georgia. Imhoff is co-sponsoring Wings of Hope, a benefit for pancreatic cancer research. Georgia, who died in 2009, had been diagnosed with the disease.
Georgia Imhoff
Photo by Peter Jones
Mayor Maureen Shul, who lost both her mother and brother to the disease during the span of one year Imhoff, who retired in 2010 after decades of prominence in Denver’s financial-services industry, recently spoke with great emotion about the woman who helped inspire his ongoing penchant for charitable giving. Villager: You and Georgia were very active in Denver’s nonprofit community. Was that something you shared from the beginning?
Imhoff: I was taught through my mother to give back to the community. I got involved when I was a young man. I married Georgia and I found that she liked giving back to the community also. One of her favorite charities was the Kempe Foundation for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect. It was very important to her. She knew that I had been involved in fundraising for 50-some years in Denver and she said, “You will help me, won’t you, honey?” What do you say to that? “Of course, dear.”
So I became involved in Kempe. It’s been almost 25 years now. Villager: What are your strongest memories of Georgia? Imhoff: She was always giving to so many people. She was sought after for advice by a lot of friends. She was a charm to be around. She was always helping people. She had many, many friends. Her funeral was attended by over a thousand people. She was very well respected. Villager: Tell us about her diagnosis. Imhoff: It took a long time. Once we found out she had pancreatic cancer, I talked to many experts in that area. All of them said she was in sixth-stage pancreatic Continued on page 4
Mayor gives Centennial an ‘A’ Noon hands out ‘report card’ in annual State of Our City
By Peter Jones On the back of the city “report card” was a collage of words – a “word cloud, if you will” – each in various letter sizes, all of them surrounding the name “Centennial.” Those words in the largest print – including “Business,” “Celebrate,” “Park” and yes, “Missy” – were the nouns, verbs and names that have been mentioned the most in press reports about Centennial during the past year. “You have copies on your table and I think you’ll be proud to see how positive Centennial was viewed,” Mayor Cathy Noon told
several hundred city residents and elected leaders during her State of Our City address on April 11. That range of media reports included one in Money magazine, which named Centennial as the 47th Best Place to Live in 2012 – and the CQ Press publishing company, which for the eighth year in a row has deemed Centennial as the large Colorado city with the lowest crime rate. “Our wonderful city isn’t just happenstance,” Noon said. “It is the result of a well-thought-out plan that was set in motion years ago – a plan that we have implemented and that we will take into the future.” The recent moments of municipal acclaim were among the highlights
Continued on page 3
Centennial Mayor Cathy Noon likened the city’s “state” to a frameable “report card” during her State of Our City address April 11 at Embassy Suites Hotel. Photo by Peter Jones