Jim Disney, former Larimer County commissioner, painter
LOVELAND» Artist and former Larimer County commissioner James Disney died Monday. He was 82 years old.
An avid hiker and mountain climber, Disney was known for his love of Rocky Mountain National Park. He founded the Loveland Mountain Club in the 1970s to share it with like-minded explorers, according to Ron Tuttle, a Loveland resident and original member of the group.
“His true love was the outdoors, no question about it,” Tuttle said.
Disney battled cancer, and at the end of October sent a letter to fellow members of the Loveland Mountain Club announcing that he would enter hospice after two years of chemotherapy.
“Many of these treatments have taken a physical toll on my body and abilities,” Disney wrote. “After meeting with several of the wonderful doctors and others to consider the remaining options for the future, I have chosen hospice. That choice means stopping chemo treatments and letting the cancer run its course while, at the same time, doing whatever is possible to provide a comfortable and productive ending.”
According to Disney’s son David, even the funeral director knew who his father was, from his time as a county commissioner.
“I think he was one of the most curious men on the planet. He was driven by a curiosity about being in the mountains, what it was like to get from Point A to Point B, what it looked like up there.”
The younger Disney was brought along for outdoor adventures even as a baby, being carried in a backpack up steep trails and having diapers changed on mountain peaks.
Disney said that his father also loved spending time with people, and that his studio was something of a cultural hub in the early 1970s.
“He was curious about people, what makes them tick,” David Disney said. “He wanted to make as many friends as possible, and he did that his whole life.”
Disney’s love of painting endured, and his partner, Marianne Tucker, wrote in the same letter that he was working on a painting called “The Reminder.”
In 2014, he was commissioned to paint the poster for Rocky Mountain National Park’s Centennial celebration, telling the Reporter-herald: “For 50 years, I have been very fortunate to share my love of Rocky Mountain National Park with my paintings and photographs, so to have my artwork on the official centennial poster is a great honor.”
As the first Open Lands Visual Artist for Larimer County, he painted a landscape of Hagues Peak, the tallest mountain in Larimer County. The painting is in the Larimer County collection.
During his two terms as a commissioner, he was known for working on establishing the Open Lands Acquisition Program, environmentally responsible land use planning, and long-range transportation planning, according to his website. In 1996, he received the Environmental Stewardship Award from Rocky Mountain National Park for his work with citizens, and local, state and federal governments to ban commercial sightseeing flights over the park.
Disney was said to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Rocky Mountain National Park, and according to Larimer County Commissioner Jody Shadduck-mcnally, even recognized certain trees he saw in her Facebook posts. He climbed Longs Peak almost 100 times.
“He showed us trails that only he knew about and sometimes recited poetry as we were hiking down,” said Betsy Mosehauer, president of the Loveland Mountain Club. “He could name every mountain in the Front Range and knew a lot of the history of (Rocky Mountain National Park). He lived a full life and left a rich legacy.”
“He was just kind of one of these larger-than-life people,” said county Commissioner Kristin Stephens, who was at one time married to David Disney. “He was a mountain climber when that wasn’t as popular as a sport in the ’60s and ’70s. He always had a spirit of adventure.”
Shadduck-mcnally said she frequently would correspond with Disney on various topics relating to the county and their shared love of the outdoors. He always signed off the same way: “Happy Trails.”
“I’m hoping that where he’s at now he’s continuing to have happy trails,” Shadduck-mcnally said.