Ret. U.S. Army Col. Glenn N. Beil

He was born April 4, 1932, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Frank Dayton and Beulah Amy (Norton) Beil. He moved with his family from Tulsa to Hotchkiss, Colorado in 1944, where he graduated from Hotchkiss High School in 1950. Glenn was a talented athlete at Hotchkiss, lettering in multiple sports and quarterbacking the football team to the 1949 state championship.

Following high school, Glenn attended Colorado A & M College (now Colorado State University) and joined the Colorado National Guard. Enrolling in ROTC at Colorado A&M, Glenn graduated in 1954 and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. While in college, Glenn married fellow student Patricia (Peterson) of Delta on June 6, 1953, and they later had four children.

Glenn’s Army career took him and his family to many different locations across the country and in Germany. He was an air defense officer with command and staff assignments throughout the U.S., Germany, and Korea, including a combat tour in Vietnam in 1968-1969. He ended his career on the General Staff at the Pentagon and then at NORAD, working with the Safeguard missile program and retiring as a Colonel.

Colonel Beil earned several awards and medals including the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Air Service Medal, and Vietnam service medal. He was especially proud of his work with the Korean military, both in Korea and later with the Korean Tiger Division in Vietnam.

Following his retirement from the U.S. Army after almost 30 years of dedicated service, Glenn worked in real estate in Colorado Springs for a short time before building a home in Delta, where he enjoyed a second career as a Savings and Loan officer. While living in Delta, he and Patricia joined the Hotchkiss United Methodist Church. They were members there for many years, and Glenn also volunteered his leadership skills as a director of the church’s Wee Care program.

During this period of his life, Glenn enjoyed planting and nurturing a wide variety of trees on his four acres, never tiring of experimenting with what might grow. Among his other passions were fishing on Blue Mesa, playing Michigan Rummy (whoop, whoop, whoop … as he was known to say if anyone made a false move), watching Oklahoma Sooner football, and following Major League baseball. He enjoyed attending several Colorado Rockies games in Denver with family over the years, and he was an avid fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, going back to his early years in Tulsa where Cardinals games were a mainstay on nightly radio broadcasts. One of his favorite memories was a trip his sons, son-in-law and older brother made with him to St. Louis for his 60th birthday to see the Cardinals play. The series happened to occur during Old Timers week and included not only current players, but also many of the former Cardinal greats he had grown up following.

Glenn and his wife, Patricia, moved to Grand Junction in 2013 to be closer to some of their children. She survives, and they would have been married 70 years on June 6th.

Glenn was a devoted husband, dad, and grandfather who had a strong positive influence on each member of his immediate and extended family. In addition to his wife Patricia, Glenn is survived by his four children: Kathy A Mowat of Grand Junction, Brian N. Beil of Eagle, ID, David N. Beil of Grand Junction, and Stanley J. Beil of Lynnwood WA. He has six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother James Beil, and his sister Nancy Martin.

His family would like to thank the many doctors and nurses who provided compassionate care for Glenn in his final months. Funeral services are under the direction of Callahan Mortuary. Interment will be held with military honors at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery of Western Colorado at 1:00 pm on Thursday, June 15th.