Telluride Foundation: Billy "Senior" Mahoney 2011 Outstanding Citizen
[click "Play" to hear Johnnie Stevens talk about Senior Mahoney]
BBQ at Telluride Historical Museum Thursday evening to honor Senior
Every year, the Telluride Foundation solicits nominations from the greater Telluride Community for its Outstanding Citizen of the Year, an award given in recognition of someone who has unselfishly contributed to our community’s quality of life. Among the winners selected by the Telluride Foundation Board of Directors since 2003: Terry Tice, Lissa Margetts, John Micetic, Bill Carstens, Jane Hickcox, John Pryor, Kathy Green, Marilyn Branch, Andrea Benda and Greer & Dan Garner. This year's winner is a guy who answers to the name "Senior."
Blame it on the Industrial Revolution, which jettisoned especially older workers from the job market, who were replaced by mechanization. Or even before, in the 18th century as more and more immigrants flooded our country, where the desire to become an American, to adapt to their adopted homeland, replaced tradition, including venerating elders. Or blame it on the glossies, magazines that celebrate the young and nubile and shun anything with wrinkles. But the rules on the books never applied to Billy "Senior" Mahoney, a trailblazer and highly revered local icon.