John D. Salazar

John Delano Salazar was born November 8, 1940 in Denver, Colorado. He is survived by his wife, Patricia, son Alex (Amy) and son Chris (Tristan) and mother in law Jackie Friesen. He is preceded in death by his parents Jose Anastacio Salazar and Josefa Maria Salazar (Martinez) and father in law Orlando H Friesen. Siblings are Arthur Salazar (Gloria), Lancaster, CA; Lee Salazar, Lakewood, CO; Agnes Hernandez (Ray) of Lakewood, CO; Genevieve Madsen (Phil) of Thornton, CO and Rick Salazar (LeAnn) of Arvada, CO. He was blessed with five grandchildren, Talon, Alyssa, Kadence, Ace and Ali as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

John was known fondly in his family as “Juan Diablo” (John the devil). He feared nothing and would oftentimes get his siblings into predicaments.

Once John talked his sisters into helping him start his grandfather’s tractor thinking they would drive to the little town of Cebolla, NM where they could get a treat. Since the tractor would not start he told his sisters he would sit in the seat of the tractor. The girls were to push start the tractor and jump on once it started. Well some of plan did work. The tractor did start, but the girls did not get on and the tractor ended up in the ditch instead of in town. Needless to say, their mother took drastic measures to imprint the wrongdoing on the seat of John’s pants.

John was a competitive swimmer in high school and life guard. Unfortunately, when his sisters begged to be taught to swim, he simply pushed them in the pool and said “sink or swim!” Not entirely his fault he claimed because his older brothers had done the same to him and he had learned quickly to swim!

John was always an animal lover even at an early age. He was always bringing home stray dogs saying that “they just followed me home” The problem was he was holding up his pants with one hand because he had his belt around the neck of the dog dragging him along to his new home.

Even when he was an adult John could not resist an animal in need of a home. Once when a friend offered him some chickens he called his mother in law, Jackie, to ask if he could bring some out to the ranch. Of course she said yes. Several hours later John showed up with the truck overloaded with chickens flapping and squawking in crates…..a total of 200 chickens! The chickens, however, did not have his belts around their necks!

John met his wife Pat at the TEV Edelweiss German Club here in Denver and they became dance partners in the Schuhplattler group. Pat says the only reason she dated him the first time was she wanted to see a Bronco game. The game was in December in the old East stands at Bronco stadium. They were sitting on snow covered seats but John brought hot toddies. So Pat held them to warm up and John drank them cold. Somehow John managed to warm Pat’s heart and she married him on November 20, 1971 in Denver, CO.

They lived in the little house behind John’s mom for a few years before they bought a house and moved to Northglenn. John worked for a number of years for packing houses as a butcher and learned the skill of meat cutting which came in handy for hunting trips so he could package his own meat. John was an avid hunter and fisherman and spent lots of time hunting and fishing with Alex and Chris and his brothers. When the packing house work became unreliable John went to work for Adams County as a heavy equipment operator. He enjoyed driving his road grader for 20 years before retiring in 2001.

For many years John rode in many parades in support of Shrine Hospitals with the El Jebel Drover mounted horse unit. Their motto was “We ride so crippled children can walk”. Many charitable hours were spent by John in supporting that mission. His favorite horse was Yancey who was with him for 31 years. Yancey was a tall horse for someone of John’s stature. Yancey, like John, was somewhat of a trickster. When Yancey did not want to be ridden he would faint! Well John broke him of that. When Yancey would faint John would climb aboard while he was lying down and prod him to get up. John said it was easier to get on at that height than when Yancey was standing!

John and Pat’s two sons Alex and Chris were very active in a variety of sports. Soccer and Team Roping were their favorites. John had always been very active in swimming, soccer, and baseball so when he was no longer playing he enjoyed going to the boys’ games and coaching when he could. John was always on the sidelines cheering, giving the referees heck (sometimes being asked to leave when he became too vocal!) and applauded all efforts. He took the boys to rodeos no matter how far and loved every minute of it. Even better for him was when he could watch his grandchildren play sports or rodeo. He even went once with each boy to the BFI Rodeo in Reno, Nevada and with grandson Talon to the NFR in Las Vegas twice. He took every opportunity he could to tell his friends and family what accomplished athletes, riders and ropers they had become.

John dropped out of Manual High School before graduating. In 1981 he completed his requirements and graduated at Manual High School where he was previously a student. He wanted to achieve that goal to show his sons how important it was to finish school even if it was a little bit late.

The family moved back to the ranch in 1990. After John retired he helped his father in law in the RV storage business and took care of the animals. Pat was still working for the government and travelled frequently and John would go along with her. They took their first cruise while on a business trip to Miami and thoroughly loved it. But the most favorite trips were always to John’s beloved New Mexico to visit with his relatives there.

Alex and Chris are now married to wonderful women and have blessed John and Pat with five grandchildren. The grandchildren were the most precious people in John’s life. Alyssa remembers that “Papa always let me drive the golf cart”. Talon’s fondest memory of Papa John was when one holiday “Papa John snuck downstairs just to play football with me even when he was not supposed to try to walk down the stairs!”

When Pat was asked for her fondest memories of Uncle John her first response was “His eyes…they were hazel and were always smiling with just a hint of mischief. As an example one morning John had gone to the barn to clean the horse stalls. A couple from the neighborhood was riding by on their horses and saw John cleaning. They stopped and asked John if he cleaned stalls and he said “Oh yeah every day”. The man said we are looking for someone to come and clean our stalls….what do you charge? John hid a smile thought a minute and said “Well, for this farmer I get to sleep with his daughter!” The couple spun those horses around and rode hell bent for leather off our property!

More than the fun times, John and I knew from the very beginning that we belonged together. I think the best way to describe us is we were comfortable with each other. We trusted each other implicitly; we could always count on each other. We knew that we would stand by each other no matter what and we encouraged the “dreamer” in each other. We laughed together and we loved each other more each day. John was my first love, he was my last love and he was my only love!”

John was always ready to lend a helping hand to a friend and family or cheering on his kids and grandkids in any endeavor. He was so proud of his family and would always be on the sidelines at any game or in the stands at rodeos and roping events. He was the first to arrive at a gathering and the last to leave. He would start a water pistol fight with his kids and be drenched and laughing hysterically in the end. He would play horse shoes in the dark while someone held a flashlight on the stake hoping they would not get hit by a flying horseshoe….(we never did find some of those horseshoes…must have ended up in the creek!). He would always be the first one on the dance floor, charming ladies of all ages into dancing with him. He had a booming voice, big smile and joked and teased one and all! Juan Diablo is now John our guardian angel. He always enjoyed life and made sure that we all did too! He believed……..

“Life is amazing, love is enduring and family is forever”