The Stan Black Award is named for one of the founders of The Community Foundation. Stan is retired now, but continues to be an active participant in a number of causes, both in the Boulder area and overseas. We present this award annually with the sponsorship of the law firm of Hutchinson, Black & Cook and the additional support individual donors. The award is intended to honor an individual who, like Stan Black, has given a lifetime of "time, treasure and talent" to the community.

The 2004 Stan Black Award honoree is Ruth Wright

Ruth Wright has a list of activities and accomplishments that is pages and pages long – too long to list all her triumphs thoroughly. We congratulate and thank her for her years of volunteer service, and the legacy she has given all of us in Boulder County and the State of Colorado.

Ruth and her husband chose to move to Boulder in the late 1950’s because it was such a beautiful and unique setting. By 1963, it was obvious to Ruth that Boulder’s rapid growth rate – 7 percent per year at that point – would result in irreversible environmental impacts unless steps were taken. She first became involved with the Colorado Mountain Club and then became chair of PLAN-Boulder where she learned that in order to protect land and control development, a governmental entity had to buy and own the land. PLAN-Boulder helped establish and pass the first open space tax, and Ruth has remained involved ever since to monitor the tax to ensure it is used as originally intended.

Views of our mountain backdrop also remain possible thanks to Ruth’s initiative. While attending CU Law School in the early 1970’s, Ruth wrote a paper on height control issues for one of her classes. Her paper turned into a Boulder city charter amendment on the ballot of November 1971 to limit building heights. It passed by 56 votes.

From 1980 until 1994, Ruth served in the Colorado House of Representatives, spending 6 of those years as the House Minority Leader. Ruth described her time in the House as exciting, challenging, frustrating – and rewarding. She loved the debates and working with 99 others to address all aspects of human life in Colorado. By representing the Boulder area, which is often unique from other areas of Colorado, Ruth learned the value of collaborating and strategizing with others because they all needed one another to get things done. As House Minority Leader, Ruth worked to lead by diplomatic example and counseled her freshman representatives “to neither cry nor crow.”

Some additional organizations Ruth has led or served on include: the State Health Board, the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission, CU’s Law Alumni Board, Audubon Colorado, Town and Gown, Colorado Water Trust, and the Boulder County Parks and Open Space Board.

This August Ruth was joined by her husband of 50 years, Ken, and their daughters and daughter’s families for an amazing trip to Bolivia and Peru. Peru is the site of much of Ruth and Ken’s current focus—Machu Picchu. A revised edition of Ruth’s book, The Machu Picchu Guide Book, came out in January 2004 and Ken’s book, Machu Picchu: A Civil Engineering Marvel, came out in 2000.

When asked why she has always been involved in her community and other services projects Ruth replied, “It’s not a conscious decision. I just see something and I want to do something about it.”