|
When Carol and Ray Fallon celebrated their
forty-eighth wedding anniversary in November 2005, Ray had reason to
sing, “I Met My Million-Dollar Baby in the Five-and-Ten-Cent Store.” The
two met in 1956 in a Woolworth’s store in Denver, where Ray was the
assistant manager and Carol an employee.
Ray was born in Chicago and moved to Denver as a teenager. He attended
East High School and the University of Colorado. Carol is a Colorado
native and a graduate of Denver’s North High School. They were married
1957, and Ray began working in contract management for the defense
contractor Martin Marietta. During his career he worked on various
classified projects for the government, including NASA’s Viking mission
to Mars.
While living in Denver the couple had three daughters, and the whole
family acquired a love of skiing. Ray coached Carol, their girls, and
numerous other relatives in nearby Winter Park, but they also visited
the Aspen slopes and along the way discovered Glenwood Springs.
Early in the 1980’s Ray was transferred to San Diego, where he worked on
the Titan IV, the largest unmanned space booster used by the Air Force.
Carol enjoyed playing golf and visiting nursing homes with animal
“volunteers” from the Helen Woodard Animal Center. Her favorite was T.
D. (short for Touchdown), a Shetland pony that had been the Denver
Broncos’ mascot. In his retirement T. D. brought much pleasure to
elderly patients in California.
Ray retired on the first day of 1989. He and Carol decided to return to
Colorado and make their home in Glenwood Springs. They will always be
grateful that Pat and Tony Tonozzi took them under their wing and helped
them make new friends.
Ray and Carol became charter members of the 100 Club when it began in
1990. Carol has fond memories of early hikes with the group and recalls
that she and Ella Birk were the first women to earn 1000 mile pins. She
has some humorous recollections, like the time she brought a cake to
surprise George Wear on his eightieth birthday. After sitting in an ice
chest, the cake was so soggy it appeared to be inedible, but fortunately
it dried out in time to be enjoyed by all. Another indelible memory is
of a hike above Aspen when Carol found herself crossing a stream on a
log behind Hal Sundin. When she demanded to know why he had abruptly
stopped, Hal replied that the log was icy, and Carol promptly fell into
the stream, losing her $200 glasses. She searched for them fruitlessly
for the remainder of that day, and then returned with snorkel gear the
next day and found them in the icy water.
Sharing his own hiking reminiscences, Ray proudly proclaims that “Henry
Birk and I never got lost or went astray on a hike because we never kept
close enough to Hal or George.” While skiing Ray still prefers to be the
sweep.
After moving to Battlement Mesa, the Fallons have continued to be ardent
skiers, and they enjoy golf, tennis, hiking, and biking in Moab. They
like to visit their daughter Lauri and other family members in Denver,
where Lauri works for United Airlines. Their daughter Terri is an
instructor in the Bridges school program in Glenwood Springs. Daughter
Kelli teaches second grade at Glenwood Elementary School, where every
week Ray and Carol serve as reading tutors and correct papers. They also
work with the blood bank and have been volunteers with Habitat for
Humanity in Grand Junction. They have four grandchildren.
|
