Wilbur "Tim" Timme

As a young child he used to tell him mother that he needed to let the sunshine on his tummy outside. I know, shocking for a 4 year old in the early 1930’s. On the cusp of the Greatest Generation he and his sister, who was his life long friend until she lost a battle with cancer, were ice skating on a farm pond near their home when the shock of World War II broke out in sudden fury with Japan. He was 13 years old when the announcement came over the radio. All his cousins of age went to war right away. Some in the Pacific, most in Europe. Two were captured when they’d worked their way almost to the line where they could attain freedom and held in German POW camps until the end of the war. Wonderful young men, they were, who fueled Tim’s desire to serve his country.

During the Koren Police Action he was in line to go to the Army camp where he was to be inducted. A sharp looking Marine was striding up and down the line, asking if anyone of these boys wanted to be a Marine. Tim did and went to El Toro for basic training. He was so proud to be a Marine and often said it was the making of him as a man of honor and valor. The Corp didn’t send him to the front line, but he served his time in a control tower with the Marine Air Wing in Cherry Point, North Carolina or near El Toro in California. He want to re-up, but the woman he was married to at the time didn’t want to be a non-com’s wife, so he didn’t. Instead they moved an airstream trailer back to the Omaha area and he worked there.

Sadly the marriage broke up after about ten years and one son was born and 3 years later he met and quickly proposed to Miss Mary Lowe and she with great alacrity accepted as she had decided he was the One, also. For the first two years they were happily ensconced in Omaha or Belleview, NE area until after the birth of their first son Mike and began traveling a short 2 1/2 months after. Tim did start up work for Badger, Inc. at that time an east coast firm and lived in Memphis, TN, Sarnia, ON, Cambridge, Mass., Montreal, Quebec and other very short term stays back and forth. The company wanted to send the young family to Pittsburg, PA, but they wanted to be closer to family and came to work for Stearns Rogers in Denver. Tim travel at least 6 to 8 months of every years, usually up to the bush in Alberta, British Columbia, trips out east to inspect/test/bless equipment and also in the Stearns offices in town. Three years later they were blessed with a daughter and then a down turn in the Petro-chemical industry and the dreaded lay off.

Tim went to work for Shaw Construction Company and many mountain properties as well as commercial buildings in town are the work of his crews on job sites. Because of the political melee of the times and the shortage of oil product the government voted to proceed with the North Slope of Alaska Pipeline down through Alaska to the port of Valdez. Tim’s gypsy feet wanted to go and so did Mary. And off they went to live in the Fairbanks, AK and Tim worked 6/tens as they were called and for 3 years traveled the pipeline setting up the first the camps to hold the construction people to build the pipeline and then the permanent camps for the people who would do the daily work and man the pump stations as well as the stations for pumping the oil through the 4 foot diameter pipe. Because he flew all over the state, drove the pipeline road so many times, etc. he saw an abundance of wild life and has been know to lure a grizzley into a truck for a photo opt along with a few others, but left wolverines alone. Working the pipeline was his dream job, but when the main contractors wanted him to be a superintendent he drew the line and said no, his family was too important. The family was to go to Johannesburg area and instead were assigned to Iran. Ummmmm, not a local they wanted to experience. Tim was suddenly on “permanent/temporary leave of absence.

Loving Colorado, they moved here with no job and an all time high unemployment rate. Two years later, with temp jobs including driving big rig trucks, Stearns-Rogers wanted him back. Again Tim traveled a lot while he and Mary lived in Park Hill, Aurora, Perry Park, Castle Rock, Colby, KS and back to Aurora. Soon Tim officially retired and only worked part time and/or volunteered at Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Botanic Garden, Wings Over the Rockies, Rebuilding Together, The Plains Conservatory and like the Raptor Sanctuary.

During the Alaska years Tim had fully accepted the Lord into his life as Savoir and would insist that Alyeska officials pray before they started whatever meeting he was sitting in on. When Calvary Chapel Aurora started advising they would build close to the house, Tim wanted to find out about it as he loved the time we’d spent at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. That was about 8 or 9 years ago in the school on the little hard chairs. Almost 6 years ago Tim was a miracle when he woke up in hospice after battling West Nile Virus Enceplalitis. After recovery he wanted to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary. He did in January of this year and in Feburary 22, 2014 entered the ER, then to hospice again and a peaceful end on March 2, 2014. He was a Godly man who lived a good and very full life.

Memorial contributions may be made in Tim's name to a charity of the donor's choosing.

Arrangements under the direction of Olinger Chapel Hill Mortuary & Cemetery, Centennial, Colorado.