Peter Rowan Haney

Peter was born in Colorado Springs on January 22, 1946, to Gratia Belle (Blackman) Haney and J. Donald Haney. He graduated from Wm. J. Palmer High School in Colorado Springs, attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins and graduated from the University of the Americas in Mexico City. He was a resident of Fort Collins, CO since 1983.

A life-long learner and world traveler, Peter had the privilege of pursuing interests and passions as they unfolded and along the way dreamed big dreams and saw them come true! He lived in the Solomon Islands, in Alaska and Mexico, and traveled to Central America and the Caribbean, Venezuela, Russia, Argentina, Morocco, India, and three trips to Cuba. He wove log building, timber framing, and bicycling interests into the core of some adventures. A high school gymnast and hockey player, Peter became an avid runner and competed several times in the Pikes Peak Ascent.

Peter was a builder and woodworker for over thirty years. The founder and workshop organizer of Rocky Mountain Workshops, he was experienced in both timber framing and log building.

He was a horse logger and traditional woodworker, specializing in log construction and handcrafted furniture. He also taught vocational skills in the southwest Pacific for three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Peter had a variety of building experiences all over the world. He was the consultant for the restoration of the Hoffman Barn in Fort Collins, a unique example of a timber frame building constructed in 1864 when Fort Collins was still an Army Fort, protecting the emigrants travelling on the Overland Trail. He was the lead consultant for the restoration of the Burgess Pioneer Cabin located at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 1996 Peter helped restore the historic Virginia Dale Stage Station, built in 1862. He built with logs in Russia and Argentina and organized two timber framing workshops in Argentina in 1998 and 1999. Peter was a member of the Timber Framers Guild.

He developed a keen interest and sensitivity to other cultures, so his lifestyle aligned more with cultures that value relationships than with American consumerism. He was open and eager to gain new skills and master challenges, including learning very functional Spanish and Solomons Pidgin to communicate at a deeper level, researching log structures and timber framing in Scandinavia and Russia, researching building a log structure with a sod roof, and how to get a chainsaw and a crate of tools halfway around the world by plane. A regular participant in Shambhala activities in Fort Collins, he designed and built a beautiful meditation pavilion at Drala Mountain Center.

Hardship was not in his extensive vocabulary. He kept building in poor weather, in his backyard or on site starting with his first log house near Steamboat Springs. Many of his accomplishments originated with his initiative and ideas: Rocky Mountain Workshops, Global Exchange Cuba, Seed to Shelter, and his beautiful house.

He was a good friend to his family and friends, welcoming their calls and giving them a call when they came to mind, even friends from childhood. Who enjoyed his high school reunion and the Haney Cousin Reunion more than Peter Haney? He had an obvious warm and genuine interest in others, asking leading questions and listening to their replies.

Peter was predeceased by his loving parents, who supported Peter’s choices (except red beards at weddings) and by his youngest brother, Steve, who had Down’s Syndrome. Peter’s love for Steve was expressed with tenderness in numerous caring visits while he lived at a MOSAIC group home, and by co-guardianship.

Peter is survived by siblings Suellen McAndrews (Robert), John (Betty), and Jeff of Colorado Springs and Gigi Walker (Johnny) of Steamboat Springs who loved him dearly and vice versa, and by his nieces Kamara McAndrews, Laura Haney, Janet Haney Melton, Chula Beauregard, Josie Litchfield, and nephew Chugrad McAndrews and their families. His mutual love and admiration for his nieces and nephew was unique and was expressed in his purposeful outreach to them and their children.

With his considerable cabinetry skills, he built furniture and gifts of wood. We look around and see his labors of love - in tables, ladder back chairs, and fences - and are reminded of his love for us in these tangible, thoughtful ways, even though we can no longer look forward to his calls on our birthdays.

Donations in Peter’s memory may be made to MOSAIC at 4775 Centennial Blvd., Ste. 150, Colorado Springs, CO 80919-3332, or www.mosaicinfo.org/donate. Arrangements are pending for an informal time of remembering Peter's life.