Robert Walter Christensen Jr.

33 years ago, Robert “Bob” Christensen built a cabin on a beautiful open lot looking across the valley to Mt. Elbert. With a 2-year old son and newly pregnant wife, he started construction without the experience to lay a foundation or dig a well. He learned how to place logs, install plumbing, wire the electrical, and build a deck, all part of his lifelong educational adventure. The cabin Bob built was a place for morning roll-up pancakes with Willie Nelson blaring, and for exploring the mountains by bike, snowmobile, and jeep. Those days of skiing and tramping were fueled by roasted homemade Chicago dogs and smothered stuffed sopapillas.

Bob grew up in Chicago and its suburb Glenview with his sisters Joyce and Carol, surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins. He spent his whirlwind youth preparing for the cabin, learning valuable camping skills on the nearby golf-course and the camaraderie of friends on road trips across the country. His father Robert’s close family and dedication to the church and community was a great pride for Bob, but the independent determination his Dad showed in studying for his degree over 14-years of night school was an enduring guide for Bob. He was grounded by his mother Alice, the homemaker that had cookies & milk ready at night, and later, whose everyday confidence would drop him off on the side of the highway to hitchhike across the country.

After his father’s early death at 47 from kidney disease, Bob took off to explore cabins in Mexico, skied by them in Oregon, and did deadly seismic work from one in Alaska. He floated one down the Mississippi, and another across the Atlantic. He visited cabins in S. Africa and Kenya, through Egypt and France. He finally stopped in Colorado, awed by its glorious mountains and spirit of possibility.

Bob lived with a constant faith that we could all improve and achieve—that we all could build new cabins. Bob believed his mother could finish high school and become a real estate agent when she needed to be on her own. And in helping her study, Bob found his own interest in real estate that flourished into a lifelong career.

After settling in Colorado, Bob showed the work ethic and devotion of his father in his new real estate enterprises and most importantly in building a family with his wife Jan and two sons Rob and Mike. He built Aspen Gold Realty, Inc. into one of the first “shown-by-owner” brokerages. Then, only through his long hours and fortitude did he not only save, but grow it into a successful management and development firm.

Having the same polycystic kidney disease as his father, Bob was driven to establish a cabin that would last and protect his family long after he could. He succeeded both in his own work, but also by becoming and inspiration and role model in life for his sons, his family, and his friends.

The cabin in Beaver Lakes was never given a name like an indispensable charm or familial birthplace. The cabin was a place to share, explore, laugh, cook, play, and be together. The cabin was the van that took his family to all corners of the United States, and houses shared with family in Green Lake, WI. It was the pop-up camper into the nooks of the Rocky Mountains, and later the boat he loved, the Lucky Star, that would take Jan and him around the Great Loop waterway with many guests and new friends along the way.

The cabin was but one incarnation of the spaces he wanted to share with family and friends, and an ideal he knew was achievable by all of us

CHRISTENSEN,

ROBERT WALTER

1946-2013

Bob Christensen, 67, born March 20, 1946 in Chicago, IL passed away Sept. 17 after a valiant four-year battle with multiple medical conditions. Bob was the much loved husband of Jan, loving father of Rob and Mike (Kelly) and dear grandfather of Sloane. He is also survived by his beloved sisters Joyce (Hugh) Murphy and Carol Christensen, and many cousins, nieces

and a nephew.

Memorial service will be Monday, 10 AM at Olinger Crown Hill Pavilion of Reflection, W. 29th Ave. & Wadsworth Blvd. Feel free to come early to visit with the immediate family any time after 9 AM.

For a full obituary, please visit www.CrownHillFuneral.com.

Memorial contributions to BMT Patient Assistance Fund or National Kidney Registry, www.kidneyregistry.org