Earl Eugene McLaughlin Jr. of Boulder, Colorado passed away on Thursday, October 28, 2021. He was born on December 7, 1940 in The Philippines to Elisabeth Eldredge McLaughlin and Earl McLaughlin Sr. who was a gold mining engineer there. Earl Sr. and Elisabeth left the Philippines with Earl Jr. to return to Colorado when Earl Jr. was one year old.
Earl Jr. grew up in Lakewood, Colorado and met his high school sweetheart, Kay, at Lakewood High School. Kay and Earl dated in high school and recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. People have described Earl’s and Kay’s relationship and marriage as something beautiful to behold.
Along with his deep Christian faith, family was paramount to Earl. He and Kay have three children: Mark McLaughlin, Kelly McLaughlin Armitage (Jim Armitage), and David McLaughlin (Angela Alderson McLaughlin), and 6 grandchildren: Keauna McLaughlin, Mya McLaughlin, Isabel Armitage, Cameron Armitage, Connor McLaughlin and Caleb McLaughlin. He also has one brother, Robert (Bob) McLaughlin. Earl loved to spend time with his family by traveling, camping, skiing, fishing, coaching his children’s sports, leading boy scout troops, and watching Broncos games with them as much as possible.
Running became a passion for Earl, and he ran the first 20 or so Bolder Boulders and competed in some extreme races such as the Mount Evans Trophy Run. Recently, Earl’s hobbies centered around golf and woodworking. Community Service was something that Earl believed in deeply. He was the founder and builder of the Boulder Technology Incubator, among many other service projects. He served on the board of directors for Bank of Boulder, Boulder Community Hospital Foundation Board, Wheatridge Hospital and the Longs Peak Council for Boy Scouts of America.
When describing Earl, people often say that he was kind, strong, loving, driven, had an extremely high work ethic, deeply valued integrity, and was a generous friend. Earl worked at Public Service Company (now Xcel energy) for 38 years. He was widely known for his innovative ideas and entrepreneurialism. His roles at Public Service Company spanned from starting as a Welder’s Helper to Vice President of Retail Energy Services and later Vice President of Marketing.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Earl McLaughlin Sr. and Elisabeth Eldredge McLaughlin.
A memorial service will be held to honor Earl and celebrate his life on November 12 at 2:00 pm at Atonement Lutheran Church 685 Inca Parkway in Boulder. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations for St. Jude’s Hospital (one of Earl’s favorite charities) or the Arthritis Foundation. https://www.stjude.org/ or https://www.arthritis.org/honor-memorial-form.
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