Sue Anschutz-Rodgers (born 1936) is an American

ranch A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...

er, conservationist, and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

. Owner of the Crystal River Ranch in

Roaring Fork Valley The Roaring Fork Valley is a geographical region in western Colorado in the United States. The Roaring Fork Valley is one of the most affluent regions in Colorado and the U.S. as well as one of the most populous and economically vital areas of th ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, she is a strong proponent of conservationism and preservation of the heritage of the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is census regions United States Census Bureau As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the mea ...

, and helped implement the legal concept of

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified land conservation organization called a "land trust", or a governmental (muni ...

s in the state. She is the chair and president of the Anschutz Family Foundation, which funds nonprofits, and also heads the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Fund, which funds projects promoting women's

self-sufficiency Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a sel ...

. She is an active member of many state and national boards. She was inducted into the

Colorado Women's Hall of Fame The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to the history of the U.S. state of Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the ...

in 2008 and the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2017.

Early life and family

Sue Anschutz grew up in

Russell, Kansas Russell is the most populous city in and the county seat of Russell County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 4,401. History In 1865, the Butterfield Overland Despatch est ...

, the daughter of Frederick and Marian Pfister Anschutz. Farming was part of her family's history, as her great-grandfather, Christian Anschutz, was one of the German farmers brought to Russia by

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

to increase the yield in the

Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

valley. Anschutz eventually left Russia for America and started a farm in Kansas. Frederick Anschutz began buying up ranches in the 1950s and tapping them for oil reserves, netting him his fortune. As a girl, Sue accompanied her father on the inspections of his oil fields, and learned to handle horses, brand cattle, and bale hay from the ranch hands. She has one younger brother,

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Macedonian Old Koine language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominen ...

, a billionaire philanthropist who heads the Anschutz Foundation.

Career

Like her father and brother, she is a graduate of the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

, attaining her bachelor's degree in education in 1955. She began working as a teacher, returning each summer to spend time with her family at their ranch. In 1987, she acquired ownership of the Crystal River Ranch in

, which her father had purchased in 1966. Under her direction, the ranch's holdings grew from one bull and 33 cows to 1,700 head of cattle by 2008. In keeping with her drive for conservationism, she installed a self-propelled water system that does not use electricity or fossil fuels. Anschutz-Rodgers is a strong proponent of conservationism and the preservation of the heritage of the

. She spearheaded the effort to implement

s in Colorado, a legal concept that shields ranchland from future

real estate development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw Real Estate, land and the sale of developed land or parce ...

Philanthropy

When her father endowed the Anschutz Family Foundation in 1982, she became its executive director, president, and trustee. , she continues to serve as chair and president. From the initial endowment of $4.5 million, the foundation's assets increased to $55.5 million as of 2016, and it has awarded more than 9,000 grants worth $52.6 million in the area of human services. In the early 1990s, Anschutz-Rodgers created Colorado Rural Philanthropy Days to encourage other philanthropists to fund nonprofits in the rural sector. She also heads the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Fund, which funds projects promoting women's

. In 2003, she and her brother

donated $2 million toward a new exhibition gallery at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. In 2013 she endowed a $2 million chair in retinal diseases at the

University of Colorado School of Medicine The University of Colorado School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Colorado system. It is located at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, one of the four University of Colorado campuses, six mil ...

. In 2018, she made an additional gift to the Department of Ophthalmology and University of Colorado Hospital which led to the designation of the program as the UCHealth Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center.

Other memberships

Anschutz-Rodgers has been an active member of numerous boards at the state and national levels, including the Aspen Valley Land Trust, the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust, the Colorado Conservation Trust, the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, the Denver Police Foundation, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the

Jane Goodall Institute The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global non-profit wildlife and environment conservation organization headquartered in Washington, DC. It was founded in 1977 by English primatologist Jane Goodall and Genevieve di San Faustino (1919-2011). Th ...

, the United States office of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy of Kenya, and the National Fish and Wildlife Organization. She is the first woman to be named to the nine-member executive committee of the National Western Stock Show.

Awards and honors

In 1997, Anschutz-Rodgers was honored as one of the Denver Women of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Colorado. She was the recipient of the Citizen of the West award of the National Western Stock Show in 2006, becoming the first woman to earn that honor. In 2012, she received the George E. Cranmer Award from Colorado Open Lands for her contributions to land preservation. Also in 2012, the Denver Rescue Mission honored her as one of the four "Women Who've Changed the Heart of the City". In 2013, she received the Russell Thayer Tutt Award from the El Pomar Foundation for "exceptional leadership in the nonprofit sector". In 2008, she was inducted into the

. In 2017, she was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Anschutz-Rodgers is divorced and has three daughters.

References

External links

"National Philanthropy Day Colorado 2016" (video)"Sue Anschutz-Rodgers" (video)
University of Colorado Advancement {{DEFAULTSORT:Anschutz-Rodgers, Sue 1936 births Living people People from Russell, Kansas Ranchers from Colorado American women philanthropists Philanthropists from Colorado University of Kansas alumni People from Denver American people of German-Russian descent 21st-century American women farmers 21st-century American farmers 20th-century American women farmers 20th-century American farmers