Gretchen Elaine Lloyd

Gretchen was born March 8, 1925 in Lansing, MI to Herbert and Ethel (Sayer) Wright. She was raised on a farm in Sandusky County, OH. She attended a one-room schoolhouse until high school. Then she attended Fremont Ross High School until graduation. Gretchen graduated from Michigan State College with a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology. She worked for one year in Salem, Oregon then obtained her master’s degree in speech pathology from Ohio State University.

Gretchen met Bill Lloyd at Michigan State. They married in 1951 in Clyde, OH. Following Bill's graduation from medical school at Northwestern, they moved to Seattle, then to Salt Lake City,

where sons Steven and Scott were born, then to Loveland,CO where Debra was born, then in 1962 they settled in Colorado Springs.

Gretchen was busy with her young family, the Junior League, the Women’s Auxiliary of the El Paso County Medical Society, and some private practice speech therapy work. She also became involved in First United Methodist Church where she served and/or chaired many committees, gave talks, volunteered, and taught the Berean Sunday School Class for 24 years.

Once the children were in school, Gretchen started working for Pikes Peak Board of Cooperative Services as a Speech Therapist. She served the Woodland Park schools for many years. She then served the Cheyenne Mountain elementary schools until her retirement.

When she retired, she immediately started volunteering as a docent at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and did so for 25 years. She loved giving tours to children of all ages. She loved learning about animals and was a life-long learner in general.

She loved gardening, hiking and climbing mountains. She climbed 24 of Colorado’s 14ers, a few of them several times. She enjoyed leading church groups and friend groups up a 14er. She relearned how to bicycle later in life and rode several 100-mile rides with Bill. She loved to travel, visiting all 50 states and 21 countries. She was actively walking her hilly neighborhood into her late 90’s.

Gretchen is preceded in death by her husband Bill Lloyd, her parents Ethel and Herbert Wright Sr. and her sister Joan. She is survived by her brother Herbert Wright Jr.; her children Steven (Julie), Scott (Linda), and Debra; her grandchildren Aaron, Christopher, Jay, and Sarah; and several nephews and one niece.

Our family would like to send a heartfelt Thank You to the wonderful staff at MorningStar at Mountain Shadows for taking such loving care of our beloved Gretchen for the past 18 months.

A memorial service will be held October 4, 2025 at 2:00pm at First United Methodist Church, 420 N.Nevada, CSC, 80903.

Livestream will be available at fumc-cs.org or on facebook.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to First United Methodist Church Colorado Springs or to The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.