Donald Lee Jenkins

The son of Thomas Edgar Jenkins and Eunice Irene Hamidy, Don was born Feb. 26, 1929 in Hillsboro, OR, but spent most of his life in Colorado. As a boy growing up on Colorado’s Western Slope, Don developed a true love of the outdoors. He became an avid hunter and few could match his trout fishing prowess while dropping flies gracefully into the Taylor and Roaring Fork rivers.

Among his many crazy adventures, Don and his friend Darrell Parnell drove to Alaska in 1949 and became high steel suspension bridge painters by pitching themselves to the painters’ union as having just completed painting Colorado’s Royal Gorge Bridge (fortunately there was no Internet to debunk this ruse). A few years later he joined the Army during the Korean war and served stateside in the military police.

It was in the mid-50’s that he returned to Alaska to hunt, and he bagged a record dall sheep. He wrote about his nail-biting escapade and submitted it to Outdoor Life, where it became the magazine’s cover story in 1962.

After short stints as a Weld County Sheriff’s deputy and dealing blackjack for his father-in-law during bootleg card games in Colorado (a bit of irony in these two pursuits), Don became manager of Greeley’s Komac Paint store. This launched his career in the paint business and over the next decades he worked in Albuquerque and then owned stores in Glenwood Springs and Craig, CO.

Don was adored by his family and friends as a renown storyteller. His exploits gave him unlimited material and his keen sense of humor could keep you entertained and laughing even when you had heard the story for the eighth time. A favorite of his lines was: “If I’ve told you this story, don’t tell me because I want to hear it again…”

Above everything else, Don loved his family. He attended nearly all the bi-annual Jenkins Family Reunions that started in 1940, and he became enough of a patriarch in his later years that his kids started calling him “The Big Chief.”

Don will be remembered for many things. He was a jack-of-all-trades, notoriously tight-fisted with a dollar and could fix anything that his wife Anita brought home from a garage sale. Underneath it all, Don was a wonderful example to his family, providing love, laughter, wisdom, stability and an optimistic perspective –all of which make a great recipe for a life well-lived.

Don is survived by his loving wife of 40 years, Anita Burbank-Jenkins; daughter Joan Wymer; sons Todd (Kristen) and Rock (Alison) Jenkins; stepdaughters, Teresa Hagen and Maria Morgan. His grandchildren include Reid Forester, Lisa Thygerson-Forester, Adam Elmore, Ryan Elmore, AJ Elmore, Heather Friend, Hunter Jenkins, Cougar Tyler, Kiah Coburn, Nichole Hagen, and Harley Hagen. Additionally, he is survived by 15 great grandchildren and 3 great-great grandchildren.