William Edward Lund

Six years ago, at the age of 84, William Lund was taking in the fresh air atop a Colorado bluff he'd just climbed with his grandchildren when a stranger looked at him in awe and said, ""I want to be like you when I grow up.""

Lund laughed, but people who knew him and his youthful approach to life, in ways big, small, loud, and soft, might have replied, ""What? He's not grown up yet!""

He did things many adults often dare not do. Even in his older years, he loved making his grandchildren tapioca pudding and teaching them how to rollerblade.

He spent hours scouting the playgrounds around his house before his grandkids visited (and likely picking up any trash that might have settled in the area). In one playground, his granddaughter found a patch of clay under a slide, and Bill helped her miraculously transform the mud into a white-painted cup.

Lund was equally passionate about his own two boys, who–along with his wife Rosalie–were his top priority in life.

With relentless and sometimes obsessive focus, but a gentle manner, he led the family on meticulously planned fishing and hiking expeditions. When his family was young, you'd find him on the soccer field (a founder of the youth soccer program in Cranmer Park), leading Boy Scouts into the mountains, in the kitchen on weekend mornings, putting his family first, despite a demanding and successful career as an engineer, first at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh and Chicago and then, in Denver at Lockheed Martin, Stearns Roger, Ball Brothers Corporation, Johns Manville, and, finally, at Martin Marietta, retiring in 1992.

In his spare time, he enjoyed classical music, studied genealogy, couldn't get enough of Doris Day and Judy Garland, helped family members in need, and took up jogging so far ahead of his time that people would stop their cars as he was running on the rural roadsides of Littleton and ask him if he needed a ride.

It was no surprise that he didn't slow down much in retirement, taking advantage of his youthful energy to take upholstery classes at Emily Griffith Opportunity School and then opening ""Bill's Shop,"" an upholstery store on South Broadway that quickly found a group of dedicated customers–and offered special deals (free upholstery) to family an friends. People would see his work and gasp. How did he achieve such perfection?

For those who knew Lund, his perfect upholstery, just like his refined recipe for tapioca pudding and the constant puzzles he never left unfinished, were on a continuum in a well-intentioned life, guided by his values of honor, loyalty, and dedication to work (and, after the work was done, to making a mean martini).

William Edward Lund was born in Rapid City, South Dakota on April 13,1930, to Ditlev Niels Juul Lund and Helen Marion Krins. His three siblings were John Ditlev, Robert Glenn, Marilyn Joanne (Lund) Jensen. He is survived by his sister.

In an overnight decision inspired by his older brother Bob, who was leaving for South Dakota State University (SDSU) the following day, Lund also went to SDSU, graduating with an engineering degree in 1952.

He served in the U.S. Army, stationed at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado from 1952 to 1954. It was during this time that Bill fell in love with skiing, mountain climbing and hiking, passions he pursued throughout his life.

Bill met his future wife, Rosalie A.J. Guy from Glasgow, Scotland, at one of his famous Friday night cocktail parties that he hosted for his young professional neighbors from his east Denver apartment community. As Rosalie likes to tell it, Bill greeted her by presenting her with her first martini, and the rest is history. They were married on June 5, 1959, in Jamestown, Rhode Island

Bill is survived by his wife and two sons, Guy Stephen, born July 3, 1960, and Michael Edward, March 20, 1963, as well as Guy's wife Nancy and their daughters, Stephanie and Alison.

William Lund died on the day of his 61st wedding anniversary, June 5, 2020.