Lucy Black Creighton

 

Lucy Black Creighton passed away peacefully at Clermont Park, Denver, CO on December 25, 2018. She was a woman of intelligence, warmth and determination.

She was born Lucy Landon Black on September 8, 1927 in Birmingham, AL to Winifred Lane Castleman Black and Walter Steele Black. Lucy and her sister Winifred lived in Mobile, AL until the death of their father in 1938. Their widowed mother went to the University of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill to complete a graduate degree while Lucy lived with extended family in Greensboro, AL. After her mother began a career with the American Red Cross, Lucy joined her mother in Washington D.C., graduating from high school in Alexandria, VA.

She was accepted on a scholarship to Smith College, Northampton, MA, in 1945. Lucy graduated magna cum laude from Smith in Economics, in 1949. She went to study economics at Harvard, where she was an assistant to John Kenneth Galbraith, who became her thesis advisor. She began a long friendship with Galbraith and his wife that lasted until his death. Lucy interrupted her studies to begin her family, but completed her Ph.D. in 1969. Her thesis was published as a book in 1976 titled Pretenders to the Throne, The Consumer Movement in the United States.

Lucy married Thomas Edwin Creighton, of Flagler, CO in 1952 and settled in Denver. Together they raised 4 children and were married for 61 years until Tom's death in 2013.

Lucy began teaching in 1962 and eventually became Professor of Economics at Colorado Women's College. She started working in 1978 as Corporate Economist for what was then the First National Bank of Denver, and became Vice President of First Interstate Bank. As the Bank's Economist, she developed and presented a semi-annual regional economic forecast, which was widely publicized. The Rocky Mountain News described her as ""perhaps the best known of Denver’s business women"". She has been on several bank boards, including the United Bank of Skyline, the Intrawest Banks of Boulder and Southwest Plaza, and The First National Bank of Flagler, Colorado, (now High Plains Bank). Mayor Federico Pena appointed her to the Denver Planning Board in 1985. She was a Director of the National Association of Business Economists from 1987 until 1990.

In 1990, Governor Roy Romer appointed Dr. Creighton as President of the Colorado Land Board. This was a tumultuous period for the Land Board, which manages the lands given by the Federal government in 1876 for the benefit of common schools and other educational institutions. The Board was seen as responding primarily to the agricultural and mining interests that leased the land, and there was pressure to increase the returns of the trust, and also to open up some of those lands to recreation and wildlife uses. Lucy's work to make these changes was controversial, and she did not seek reappointment in 1995.

Upon full retirement in 1995, Lucy co-founded the Denver University program called VIVA, now known as OLLI.

She served on numerous non-profit, business and government boards notably those of Loretta Heights College, the Clayton Foundation, The Berger Mutual Funds, the Smith College Board of Trustees and Family Star. Lucy also served on the Business Commission on Child Care Finance. She was a Director of the National Association of Business Economists from 1987 until 1990.

Lucy lived at a time of tremendous change for women. She navigated the opportunities of work and professional life along with the more traditional role of wife and mother all while her children came of age during the Vietnam and Watergate eras. She was a life-long Democrat, married to a life-long Republican. Her children are deeply grateful for the path she forged, and appreciate what it was to keep a beautiful home, nurture holiday traditions, host countless dinners for family and friends and be a recognized educator and business leader in her community.

Lucy and Tom had deep Denver connections but particularly to two groups of friends they started in the 1950's. Potluck and Great Books began with other young couples that found themselves in post WWII Denver. The groups continued until everyone was well into their 80's. Two of her favorite books, both by Willa Cather, were My Antonia, which describes pioneer life on the Great Plains, and Death Comes for the Archbishop, set in colonial Santa Fe.

Lucy and Tom were indefatigable hikers, cross country skiers, and world travelers, studying maps and history books in preparation. With Tom's Navy background, trips often involved boats, and Lucy became an adept first mate on their sailboat on Lake Dillon and sailing trips in the Aegean Sea with friends. Tom and Lucy enjoyed many riverboat trips in Europe in their later years. She organized trips to the Alabama beach in Gulf Shores for family and friend reunions.

Lucy and Tom lived 60 years in Park Hill. They moved in 2012 to Clermont Park, in Denver, where she continued to organize speaker series for the residents and take adult continuing education courses at Denver University. She was a member of Park Hill Congregational Church, which she and Tom joined in 1953.

Lucy is survived by four children. Tom Creighton (Lucy Loomis), Winifred Walters (Tom), Ann Creighton (Mark Guetlich) and Virginia Newton (Rick); nephew, Walter Steele Lamberston, eight grandchildren Susan Creighton (Stewart Gohringer), Lila Creighton, Nick Creighton, Landon Newton, Frederick Newton, William Newton, Hans Guetlich and Frances Guetlich. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband and her sister Winifred Lambertson.

Lucy will be missed by the many people whose lives she touched. The family is grateful for the care provided by Clermont Park.

A memorial service will be held on January 7, 2019, at 2:00 pm, at Park Hill Congregational Church, 2600 Leyden St. Denver, CO.

Memorial contributions may be made to Denver Botanic Gardens or a charity of your choice.

Please share your memories of Lucy and condolences with her family in the Guestbook.

 

 

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