Gaylon Dean Curley

Gaylon was born to Vaughn William Curley and Opal Marie (Teel) on October the twenty-eight, nineteen thirty-two in Oberlin Kansas. His early life was spent on-the-go, as his father followed government construction, and he was joined in life’s adventure by his little sister Beverly in nineteen thirty-nine. During his early life, he moved twenty-nine times, although recently he said he could only remember twenty-six of them. From Kansas, to Colorado, to California during the war years while his father served in the Naval reserves, then on to Missouri. He was indeed the “Everywhere” man.

It was in West Plains Missouri where he met his future wife of sixty-nine years, Norma Jean Garrett. They waited just long enough for her to turn eighteen, when they ditched school to get married on March second nineteen fifty-one. That summer, he sold what cattle he had, purchased a small travel trailer, and the two of them began their own life-long adventure.

They settled back in Colorado, Norma Jean’s home state. That fall they welcomed their first child Sherry into the world, followed by Susan in nineteen fifty-seven, and Michael in nineteen sixty. In that time, Gaylon went to carpentry school and worked with his dad building houses, and then started Midwest Drywall in nineteen fifty-nine. He picked up a love for cars from his own experiences, and from working on them with his Uncle Vince. He learned more of the customizing and repair of cars in Tom Connor’s body shop on Longmont’s south side when the family settled more permanently in the Longmont area.

Gaylon was an avid drag racer in the late fifties and early sixties, sometimes rubbing elbows with or racing eliminations with names like Kenz and Leslie, Tommy Ivo, Ed Piz, Swede Erlich, and Bob Carnes to name a few. It was at a race in Castle Rock at Continental Divide Raceway where he saw his first Bocar; a car that would spark a life-long passion that he would share with his children and grandchildren. He sold his fifty-five Thunderbird to purchase his first Bocar in nineteen sixty-two.

By nineteen sixty-eight, Gaylon was having different ideas when it came to supporting his family. He sold his Bocar, and purchased his first rental property, a fourplex in Loveland. This was the beginning of yet another life-long journey for the family. He would continue to operate the drywall business, and by nineteen seventy-one, had purchased some empty lots on Kay Street to build apartments on. These first four buildings of his own, finished in nineteen seventy-two, would not be the last. He followed with having another four-plex built, purchased then sold another, purchased another, purchased two more, and made himself a small empire that has supported his family for decades.

He became a grandfather for the first time in August of nineteen seventy-five with the birth of his oldest daughter’s first child Kelly Sutton, and again with her son Christopher in nineteen seventy-eight, and once more in nineteen eighty-three when his son Michael welcomed his son Mitchell into this world only a day after Gaylon’s own birthday. The two of them would celebrate their birthdays together for the rest of his days.

It was in nineteen eighty-four that Gaylon once again found a Bocar to play with, a white XP-5 hiding in a garage in Montana. He restored the car, painted it his own personal shade of red, and started racing again with a small car club called Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing. This time on road courses with twenty other vintage car nuts, all weekend long instead of just straight lines for ten seconds at a time. He earned his racing license in Bocar Serial# 007, and so did Michael and Mitchell in later years. His love for this car would cause a near obsession-like level of enthusiasm for the brand that would see his and his family’s collection grow to eight different Bocars, and draw the attention of other Bocar owners and restorers from across the country, and even from across “The Pond”.

By the turn of the century and shortly thereafter, Gaylon retired from the Drywall business, to focus entirely on rentals. It was also during these first twenty years of the century that he became a great-grandfather. Not just once, but six times over. For all of his passions and interests, nothing made him more proud or more full of life than his family.

So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our “Everywhere and Anything” man, a Drywaller, Builder, Landlord, Electrician, Plumber, Concrete Guy, Roofer, Carpet-layer, Hot-rodder, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather and friend, Gaylon Dean Curley. We miss you, but we see you in everything around us, and it gives us comfort to know how much you gave to so many for so long.

-Mitchell Curley, 2020.