Gloria Bonville Cramer

Gloria B. Cramer, loving wife of the late Dr. David A Cramer, passed Wednesday March 26th, 2025 at 11:30 am. Gloria is survived by her three sons Steve, Randy and Jay Cramer. Her three boys live in California, Colorado, and Virginia. Their children live in California, Las Vegas, Alaska, Florida, and Australia. All share in the cooking, cleaning and other household duties with their spouses. The best learning is through examples, which start at home.

Gloria was born in Presque Isle, Maine. She met her husband, Dave, while working in a Western Union office cashing his check for him straight off the naval ship. They were married in Lafayette, Colorado in 1955 while Dave was still in the Navy.

They lived in Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado where Dave attended college and Gloria was home raising their three boys. Stephen is the oldest, then Randy, and the youngest is Jay. Gloria and her family lived in the CSU college housing for families which, at that time, were quonset huts. Gloria, always being a trendsetter and perfectionist, was the only one that had a little fenced yard and curtains in her home. Dave became a professor at CSU and was intently involved with agriculture. Gloria worked in accounting at CSU for a short time, just to “help out”.

The family moved to a farm in northern Colorado. They were the trendsetters putting up the largest barn in NOCO in the 1950's. They raised pigs and sheep, Gloria even helped deliver the baby pigs once when the guys were gone. She often told the story about losing a pig in the spring and finding it in the fall when the neighbor harvested their corn and found there was a fully grown pig in the middle of his field having lived there happily all summer! Gloria would never let any animals in the home except for the new baby lambs when it was freezing outside. She would bring them inside where they would be kept in a box by the fireplace until it warmed up enough for them to return outside.

She went along with her husband and children to live in New Zealand for almost a year in the late 1960's. These were not Gloria's fondest memories, but the boys loved it. Gloria missed the great US of A, “God’s Country.” Why would anyone want to live anywhere else?

At a time in History where most females took care of the family in the home, Gloria said that her goal was to take care of her husband and children. She would take pride in a clean home and she did well in making tasty meals for the family. She introduced Mexican and Chinese food to her family when most families still just ate meat, potatoes and a simple vegetable.

When the children grew up Gloria and Dave sold the farm. After selling the farm, Gloria and Dave then built their home adjacent to the Fort Collins Country Club golf course. She and Dave were avid golfers, with both of them experiencing a hole in one. (Gloria often times would be seen on the course practicing on her own.) She added many unique and functional additions to their home; a cupboard in her kitchen to store her stool, a place made specifically to store the bridge tables in the family room, a large workshop for Dave, to name a few. Gloria stated she didn't really like to play bridge but enjoyed hosting; she was an impeccable host.

Gloria became a widow at 63. She was very independent. She was a golfer, an avid skier and traveler. She had no problem driving by herself across the country or driving the family home after a long day of skiing. She would winter in Arizona and visit family in Maine.

Gloria was ahead of her time as a minimalist, everything had its place and if it didn't it wasn't there long. She was strong and independent until the end, we admired her independence, her dedication, and so many of her qualities.