Personalities

Banner5 Dr. Marshall Whiting, a psychologist, is known and respected in Telluride for intelligence, intuition, and empathy. What may not be common knowledge is that her heart is way too big to be confined within the walls of a box canyon. Whiting is the board development chair of Project Concern International.

With over 45 years of experience, Project Concern International is a leading international health organization that saves the lives of children and families around the world by preventing disease and providing access to clean water and nutritious food. The nonprofit reaches over three million people a year with programs in third-world countries to Bolivia to Zambia. Project Concern is on the ground in Haiti today.

Dr. Whiting sent the following appeal to her friends in a morning email:

by Art Goodtimes

IMG_5178  Archaeologist Dr. Mark Varien spoke recently in Telluride at the Telluride Historical Museum. If you missed it, you missed a wonderful talk. I know that to be true, even if I was out of town and wasn’t able to attend myself.


I’ve heard Mark talk in Cortez and at Grand Junction. His lectures are riveting – not because of any verbal histrionics. He has a quiet voice and demeanor. But because he has a brilliant mind and speaks with authority and knowledge.

(Telluride Inside... and Out restating the point about Telluride being at the epicenter of the world map because the examples are so robust.)

Christo & Jean-Claude In May 2007, the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art held a show of the work of the world's first wrapper, the artist Christo, and his wife and partner-in-crime Jean-Claude, just two years after the couple famously created the Central Park installation known as ''The Gates." That project  involving thousands of saffron drapes was credited with injecting about $254 million into New York's economy. (Christo, how would you feel about wrapping Ajax today?)

Sadly, Jean-Claude died Wednesday, November 18, from complications of a brain aneurysm. For details, go to www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/19/us/AP-US-Obit-Jeanne-Claude.html.

Jane, William Editor's note: Going Places/Doing Things is a new feature on Telluride Inside... and Out. We invite locals and part-time locals to post their experiences on the road: the good, the bad, the ugly. We lead with a story by Jane Shivers, who travels often to interesting places and should be a regular contributor.

Jane, a part-time local, is the principal of Shivers Consulting, which provides counsel on marketing communications, leadership and executive coaching. Jane has more than 30 years experience in public relations and marketing after building her own agency in Atlanta and selling it to Ketchum, a global firm, in 1985. She was Director/Partner at Ketchum from 1985-2002. She is one of 70 women profiled in WOMEN WHO MEAN BUSINESS, a William Morrow book by A. Mikaelian. 


It was love at first sight on Jane’s first visit to Telluride in 1978 and she has been a homeowner here since 1980.  However, husband William Sharp's work as an international tax attorney means frequent trips to Zurich, Switzerland, where the following strange and wonderful post came about. With apologies to PETA, here goes:
[click "Play" to hear Baerbel speak about living in divided Germany]

11-9 Berlin Wall On Monday, November 9, starting at 6 p.m., Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Beloved long- time local/director of the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, Baerbel Hacke grew up in a divided Germany. She plans to share her experiences escaping from behind the Iron Curtain. Also on the FREE program, the film "Leipzig In the Fall," directed by Andreas Voigt and Gerd Kroske. "Leipzig in the Fall"  is a comprehensive documentation of demonstrations and other events in Leipzig from October 16 - November 7, 1989,  and includes interviews with demonstrators, members of the citizens' rights movement, officials, and bystanders.


In 1958, Baerbel's parents decided the family had to escape East Germany, because of the rise of Communism. They told their seven-year-old daughter she was going to an equestrian show for a day. Baerbel left her relatives, her friends, her toys without the chance to say goodbye. Once in West Germany, she ate her first orange. It was the taste of freedom. And not a moment too soon.
[click "Play to hear Susan's conversation with Andrea Benda]

11.1.2009 106
Andrea Benda (r) with friend and
council colleague, Lulu Hunt

Retiring Telluride councilwoman Andrea Benda spends a great deal of time wandering around a cemetery. She is not maudlin. She has nothing to bury, not even a hatchet, because she long ago she made peace with all her council colleagues. Telluride's Lone Tree Cemetery is simply one of the stops on the town tours her company, Explore Telluride!, offers.


Andrea Benda holds a degree in Library Science from James Madison University. After graduation, she worked in the Chicago suburbs as a media specialist in elementary schools until she and her then husband Terry, now deceased, moved to Telluride and ran the Ore Station Lodge as an inn, handling everything from taking reservations to cleaning toilets. Not being afraid to get her hands dirty was probably good training for the Telluride Town Council.

Up in the air has several meanings for Telluride's "Glider Bob" Saunders, who has gotten lots of practice  just idling his engines. Glider Bob is one of the candidates running for re-election to Telluride's Town Council, so tonight he awaits election results. After...

Img006 Telluride has lost another dear friend. Stephen Wald died last Thursday, October 22, 2009. I met Stephen nearly a quarter century ago, and my life has been better for knowing him. Our lives crossed in a number of ways besides our friendship. Stephen was a major force in the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program, where I have taught for ten years. When I was too late to register to run in the 1995 New York Marathon, Stephen made a few calls and I got in. The only quid pro quo was that I support a charity that was important to Stephen.

Stephen has been a friend of Susan's even longer than I have, through connections from her earlier life in New York. That we both knew Stephen from different paths was a wonderful surprise in our early time together.

Our hearts go out to Sheila, Alison, and Alex, and to all who will miss our friend. TIO is honored to publish Stephen's obituary below.