Leslie Cliff Roberts

Leslie Clifford Roberts (Cliff) was born October 27, 1939 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Gerald Clifford Roberts and Pauline Denzel Overton. He died at 5:45 PM on December 29th in the presence of his loving family. Cliff spent most of his youth in Texas and graduated high school in Abilene, TX. He is a graduate of Imperial Valley College (AS), Abilene Christian University (BS) and Century University (MS). He was veteran and served with the Texas National Guard, 36th Division in 1957, Air Force ROTC at Texas Tech in 1961, and Post 32 of the American Legion in Longmont, CO. He and his first wife Dianne Bowers-Roberts had four children: Bryan, Gerald, Jennifer Lee, and Paul Roberts. He re-married Kathryn Santangelo in 1985 and they had three children: Kathryn, Anthony, (Deceased, 1990) and Jonathan Roberts. Cliff has 15 grandchildren: Taryn, Tristen, Kaleb, and Karrlynn Lee, Rebekah, Joshua, Rachel, Rayna, Rylah, Coleton, Garrett, Kylee, Regen, Liam, and Ilia Roberts. Cliff is survived by brother Jerome Roberts and sister, Rozlyn Keeper and preceded in death by his two sisters Nancy, Jennifer Lynn and parents Gerald Clifford and Pauline Roberts.The story of Cliff-- his personality, his life, his experiences-- is almost impossible to condense and even harder to believe. He was a man of astonishing aptitude, tenacity, and drive. He was a brilliant engineer with a famous habit for drawing all the problems he was perpetually working out in his mind on napkins. His creative side was equally strong; he loved to write impromptu p ms and could play any song on virtually any instrument after hearing a tune just once. He truly never met a stranger. For example, as a young man he happened to encounter Loretta Lynn and some of her bandmates by a pool in Las Vegas, struck up a conversation, and was swiftly invited to pick up a guitar and jam for several hours. He had a way with people; he learned their names, their geologies, their histories. Every person Cliff Roberts met-- Loretta Lynn, a waitress at Burger King, the passengers on the bus he rode to work was worth a grin and a friendly exchange. He reveled in horizons, and relentlessly chased them throughout his life. As a boy, he set his sights on Colorado; as a man, he moved there and eventually purchased what is now Medicine Lodge Ranch North of Lyons, where he will be laid to rest. It's here that he built his family home by hand, ran cattle on horseback, become the mayor of Lyons, appointed Jill Babcock as the first female Chief of Police in Colorado history, raised six children, chickens, cattle, horses, emus, pigs, and all manner of wild creatures. Cliff tried on too many professional hats to enumerate in detail here: he was a travelling Campbell's soup salesman, rough neck, cattle driver, teacher, large-animal nutritionist, engineer, contractor, ditch-digger, undercover FBI agent, rancher, pilot. In short, Cliff was whatever he put his mind to and much more. Cliff left this world strong in his Christian faith and had fond memories of his time at Life Bridge Church and, more recently, The River Community Church. He was a member of the Lyons Fire Protection Board, Society of Civil Engineers, and Society of Petroleum Engineers.More than all of this, Cliff Roberts was a husband, brother, father, grandfather, and friend. He lives on through his wife, 6 children, fifteen grandchildren, and two siblings.