A great sense of humor; entertaining to listen to; capable; reliable--all these words are used to describe one of the co-founders and charter members of the 100 Club.  Grace Gibson and her husband Ed came to Glenwood from Texas, where they had belonged to a 100 Club.  They brought the idea and the name with them to Colorado.  Ed and Gracie became acquainted with Ollie and Tom Sherman and others skiing at Sunlight, where Ed was base manager.  Besides skiing, the group initiated the once a month dinner and dance.  Grace sent out cards to all the members advising them of the month’s activities.

Grace Velasquez was born in Aspen, where her dad was working in the silver mines.  The family moved several times, living in Snowmass, McClain flats (now Starwood), and Woody Creek, where they rode horseback to the country school. Later they lived on the Wulfsohn ranch (now Glenwood Meadows), where her dad farmed for the Wulfsohns.  When Grace was nine years old, her mother died and her dad left the family.  Three older brothers and a younger brother were split up and taken in by various families.  Grace, however, was sent to California to live with a maternal aunt and uncle.  They had never had children and didn’t particularly like having a nine-year-old to raise.  Despite the separation, the siblings remained close and supportive of one another. After two years of missing her brothers, Grace was able to come back to Glenwood where she stayed with various families and finished school in Glenwood Springs.

Grace married a local boy.  They moved to Texas where her two daughters and her son were born.  Her husband was a mechanical engineer for the city of El Paso and later worked as a civilian contractor in the Pacific.  He was gone much of the time, so Grace was a single parent.  During this time she worked teaching school and in various medical offices.  When the children were older, she and one son joined her husband on a forty-square-mile island in Micronesia.  While there, she worked in a hotel and restaurant for Continental Air Lines, eventually taking over as manager.  The law allowed her to hire only native help, with whom Grace had no common language.   One morning no one showed up for work and she discovered the maintenance man, who was from Hawaii, had told all the workers to stay home and “you’ll get more money!!”  Grace got in her vehicle and with sign language and her limited knowledge of the language eventually rounded them all up.  They gladly came back to work.  Obviously they didn’t understand that they were on strike. 

After two years Grace returned to Texas because her husband’s contract was in limbo, making her no longer eligible for employment in Micronesia.  The marriage was dissolved, and she resumed her previous employment in Texas, working for a cardio-vascular surgeon.   While working at the clinic, she met Ed, who was in charge of the building and maintenance for the clinic. They married and both continued working in El Paso until Grace’s brother, through his friendship with Tony Tonozzi, sent them word that the Brettleburg apartments in Glenwood Springs needed a manager.  They worked at this position until Ed became the base manager of Sunlight Ski Area and Grace went to work as a much loved and valued receptionist at a local doctor’s office. When the doctor left for California, Grace, with her usual versatility, went to work at the West Canyon Tree Farm.  Her husband also worked there until his death.  Grace kept the books and also found herself happily “playing in the dirt,” working with transplants.

Grace now lives in Battlement Mesa, where she worked at the post office until it was closed.  She now substitute teaches in the Early Childhood Development School.  She also volunteers at the Mesa Vista Senior Home and once a week works at the Information Center Cabin.  With adversity and a great sense of humor comes strength.

by Marge Chandler