Fort Lewis College graduating its Centennial class on April 30

 

DURANGO, CO – For 557 seniors at Fort Lewis College, Spring Commencement will mark a triumphant end to their undergraduate academic careers. Every graduating class is special, though the 2011 class will be recognized as the Centennial graduating class to commemorate Fort Lewis’ 100 years as a public educational institution.

Fort Lewis College’s Spring Commencement takes place on Saturday, April 30, 2011, in Whalen Gym. To accommodate all of the graduates and their families, two ceremonies will be conducted.

The first ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m. and will honor graduates from accounting, adventure education, athletic training, business administration, computer science information systems, economics, exercise science, interdisciplinary studies, marketing, and psychology.

The second ceremony, which takes place at 11:30 a.m., includes students earning degrees in agriculture, anthropology, art, biology, engineering, English, environmental studies, gender & women’s studies, geosciences, history, humanities, mathematics, modern languages, music, Native American & indigenous studies, philosophy, physics, political science, public health, sociology, southwest studies, Spanish, student constructed majors, and theatre.

The honor of addressing the class of 2011 will go to a former mayor of Durango, Ms. Ann Wilson Brown. Ms. Brown’s life and career has been tied to the histories of southwest Colorado, Durango and Fort Lewis College. The places and people she has come across are better off because of it.

Ann, a fourth generation native of southwest Colorado, was born and raised on the family farm near Cortez in Montezuma County, Colorado. She spent her early childhood and young adult years actively participating in 4-H projects plus a large variety of school activities including student council, cheerleading, drama and sports. Her 4-H projects took her to the Colorado State Fair in sewing and dress review and Grand Champion swine. During her teenage years she drove stock cars in the races near her family home.

After graduating from Montezuma-Cortez High School in 1956, Ann enrolled at Fort Lewis College where she met and married Don Brown of Durango. After graduating from Fort Lewis (a junior college at the time) she and her husband enrolled at Adams State College in Alamosa where they both obtained teaching degrees.

Ann was among the first students to attend Fort Lewis College after the institution’s move to Durango in 1956. The things she learned at FLC helped her throughout her career and remain with her to this day. Her thoughts on her education echo much of what current Fort Lewis students have to say about their educations today.

“I think the main fact that the classes were small and the professors were exemplary is a good reason to go to Fort Lewis,” she explains. “I imagine that is true to this day.”

In 1983, Ann was elected to the Durango City Council, repeating what Don had done in 1968. She served as mayor of Durango in 1985-1986. She has shown her leadership ability by not only serving her community but by serving as chairman of the Colorado Municipal League Policy Committee, chairman of the Western Colorado Water Conference, chairman of the Animas/La Plata Negotiating Teams (included were teams from the Federal Government-Department of Justice, Bureau of Reclamation, the states of Colorado and New Mexico, both the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribes and non-Indian water users), chairman of the Colorado Day Care Council and co-chairman of the Fort Lewis College Alumni 50-Year Reunion.

Ann, in her lifetime, has undertaken a broad spectrum of activities in the community, state and nation. She has served on committees on natural resources, child and family programs, the Department of Employment and Training Task Force, the Youth Advocate Board, the Regional Council on Aging, as president of the Colorado Coordinated Child Care Council in the Colorado Department of Social Services as well as the National Indian Head Start Advisory Committee.

She and her husband raised 5 children: Dan, attorney for City of Phoenix; Randy, attorney in private practice, Grand Junction, and municipal judge, Fruita; Kara, teacher, Colorado Department of Corrections,  Canon City; Jason, city engineer, Salt Lake City; Jeff, interpreter, Mesa Verde National Park and Joshua Tree National Park.