3 in prominent family killed

Civic leader Parr, wife, daughter, 19, die in Wyoming

By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 24, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.
Updated December 24, 2007 at 10:51 a.m.

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Photo by Katy Tartakoff / 2006

Killed were John Parr, Sandy Widener, top, and their daughter Chase, 19, right. Daughter Katy, 17, is hospitalized in Casper.

Photo by Javier Manzano © The Rocky

Friends and classmates console 17-year-old Lauren Harrington, whose best friend, Katy Parr, was seriously injured in a car accident Saturday morning in Wyoming. A candlelight vigil was held at the Memorial Pavilion at Denver's Cheesman Park on Sunday night in honor of Katy and her family. Katy's parents and sister were killed in the crash.

Denver's heart just got a little bit smaller with the weekend deaths of civic leader John Parr, his wife, Sandy Widener, a writer and co-founder of Westword, and their 19-year-old daughter, Chase.

They were killed Saturday morning in a chain-reaction crash on an icy Interstate 80 in Wyoming as they headed to Boise to see family for the holidays.

A second daughter, Katy, 17, remained hospitalized in Casper in stable condition. She suffered broken ribs and cuts, according to a nursing supervisor and family friends.

"This is such a devastating loss for the entire community on so many levels," Gov. Bill Ritter, a family friend, said in a statement. "John and Sandy made untold contributions - small, large and every size in between - and touched untold lives. They were loved by so many people that you can feel the tears ripple across Colorado."

John Parr, 59, served as facilitator for Ritter's Blue Ribbon Transportation Panel.

Parr was considered a tireless crusader for smart growth and sustainable development long before the terms were in vogue. A decade ago, he co-founded Civic Results, a nonprofit that emphasizes collaborative problem-solving.

He was the founding director of Colorado Common Cause, which under his leadership in 1972 worked to pass the state's Sunshine Law, among the first in the nation to require government meetings to be open to the public and to require lobbyists to report their spending.

"He was very selfless," friend Tom Nussbaum said. "He didn't want big salaries. He didn't need a title above the door and all that kind of stuff."

Parr helped get Dick Lamm elected governor in 1974 after the two successfully fought a decision to stage the Winter Olympics in Colorado.

Lamm said Parr transitioned from being anti-establishment to a behind-the-scenes part of the power structure.

"He went from being a crusader driven mainly by ideas to a guy whose life motive was to be constructive and helpful," Lamm said.

In 1983, Parr was named transition director for Denver Mayor Federico Pena, whom he also helped to get elected.

Widener, 53, helped found the alternative Denver newspaper Westword 30 years ago with friends from Cornell University. More recently, she wrote textbooks and was active at East High School, where daughter Katy is a student. Daughter Chase also graduated from East.

Widener met Parr when she showed up at the governor's office to interview him for a story. They were married in 1986.

"I was in the office when that happened," said David Miller, who worked under Parr in Gov. Lamm's office.

"It wasn't love at first sight, but shortly thereafter, they started seeing each other," Miller said. "They both told us over the years that they thought the other was interesting and nice looking."

Chase was a student at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and was active in choir and theater. She was interested in international relations and had interned at Colorado Media Matters.

The door to the family's Cheesman Park home was always open. Engaging conversations erupted around the dinner table, friends said.

Westword co-founder and editor Patricia Calhoun said she met Widener on their first day at Cornell. A bunch of students from their dorm ended up working for the Cornell newspaper.

"Till 3 a.m. we'd sit at the Cornell Daily Sun chatting with other people, eating at the State Street Diner," Calhoun recalled. "Every guy who worked for the Cornell Daily Sun was in love with her."

Widener joined Calhoun and Rob Simon to launch Westword, which also involved many late nights.

Widener left to write for a glossy magazine, then wrote for the now defunct Empire, a magazine published by The Denver Post. Widener also served as librarian for a local retirement community.

"They just found the world fascinating, and they made it more fascinating," Calhoun said. "You always felt happy when you saw them - even if Sandy was completely making fun of something you had done 25 years earlier."

The family was headed to Boise to visit Widener's family when the crash happened.

According to the Wyoming Highway Patrol, Parr was driving west on a slick, snow-blown I-80 about six miles west of Rawlins when he lost control of the family's 2007 Subaru station wagon.

Another driver, Angela Seeley, 42, of Colorado Springs, tried to avoid the car in her Acura SUV but ended up clipping the front of the Subaru.

Seeley then hit the back of a snowplow driven by Johnny Woolner, 54, of Rawlins, according to the report.

Robert Maxwell, 46, also attempted to avoid the mess but his pickup hit the Acura. Then, a tractor-trailer driven by William Bowers, 58, of Bremerton, Wash., broadsided the Subaru on the driver's side.

Parr, Widener and their daughter Chase died at the scene.

Troopers cited Seeley, Maxwell and Bowers for driving too fast for conditions.

Seeley was treated and released from Carbon County Memorial Hospital in Rawlins. Emyrald Seeley, 10, was released from the hospital Sunday.

The Parr-Widener family had a rustic cabin in a "ghost town" called Baltimore, near Rollinsville, said friend Brian Barhaugh, who also had a cabin there. The families would see each other most summer weekends.

Every New Year's Day, the families gathered for a potluck in the ghost town to make predictions for Denver and Colorado in the new year.

This year will be no exception - except that a bright, loving force will be missing.

"They were like everybody's dream family," Barhaugh said. "Everybody just loved the heck out of them."

poppenj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5176 The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• December 24, 2007

  7:42 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  JamesNasium writes:

  I worked with John on the Downtown Area Plan; I am shocked and saddened by this news. My thoughts and prayers are with this family and I pray for their daughter who was injured.

• December 24, 2007

  9:53 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  JamesNasium writes:

  Didn't say he was or wasn't my friend. When I lose someone that I worked with or I know, I am saddened.

• December 24, 2007

  10:40 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  amherst16 writes:

  "Fresh," please respect family and friends during this time. Wealth is of extremely little importance in this issue. The Parr family was loved and will continue to be loved for other reasons than "he was rich and had rich friends." It is apparent that you have no connections to John Parr or his amazing family, Denver experienced loss today, that is why they are on the news. What if it was your family?

• December 24, 2007

  10:42 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  jvb writes:

  Fresh makes a lot of sense: "They were no more important than anyone else," and as far as Nature is concerned they were no more important than bugs: Life lives off the death of other life forms and if that is intelligent design, I'm at a loss for words. I don't mind "thoughts" going out but prayer is gross stupidity. Some idiot will say: "Well, God needed three and spared the youngest because He works in mysterious ways." Fresh is wrong because there are inmates who I think are worth a lot less in a world of sentient beings e.g. Sirhan Sirhan is worth so little while Bobby Kennedy is worth so much more in his humanity as opposed to gold and silver or America's diminishing legal tender.

• December 24, 2007

  10:59 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  soccer_mama writes:

  Quick question:
  Why isn't this families legal status posted in the headline like the auto accident in Idaho Springs?
  I'd like to read "car carrying family of 4 legal citizens........."
  what is fair is fair...

• December 24, 2007

  11:16 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  rreute writes:

  Thankfully, I'd seen John 3-4 times in the past month - in Denver, in Colorado Springs. Always cheery with his wide, easy smile and twinkling eyes. Always dressed in his trademark western-cut sportcoat. The me, he was the ultimate policy wonk, in the best sense of the term. It was a joy to watch him work as a facilitator at meetings of the Colorado Cooperation Council or the Denver Chamber Foundation's Leadership Exchange trips. He was quite good at it, which is why he was always in demand. He cared deeply about our city and our state and he spent his life working to make them better. Those fortunate enought to have worked alongside him will miss his spirit terribly.

• December 24, 2007

  11:44 a.m.

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  rg writes:

  Mom, dad, and the eldest are gone, that's life and why: Don't go there; the youngest carries a mental scar for life. I just had to say a few words since I can empathize with her, the youngest, which is to walk in her shoes. If anyone says, "It's a miracle she survived:" There are no such thing as miracles, there are only occurrences as a result of being alive. Richard Grimes, deicide http://www.geocities/r22037/think.html

  Deicide Corner: "It is almost impossible to exaggerate the proneness of the human mind to take miracles as evidence, and to seek for miracles as evidence," -- Matthew Arnold

• December 24, 2007

  12:36 p.m.

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  ronking writes:

  It seemed that John Parr not only knew everyone important in Colorado, but he also seemed to touch all Coloradoans, though most were not aware of it.

  John was what I'd call a domestic diplomat. From health care to transportation to schools, if there was an intergovernmental effort in the works to make public life better here in Colorado and in dozens of other communities and states, John seemed to have been involved in some way in bringing all sides together for the greater good. He was gifted in getting people to reach across all political divides, and I hope the media and public tributes that are sure to come in the following days will spotlight this.

  John also had a habit of helping the little guy, too. In 1994, as I was founding my marketing and PR firm that has thrived since, John and the National Civic League became my first client, and now my biggest regret is that I did not adequately thank him.

  I hope this starts the job of showing the gratitude that none of us can ever finish. As a former Tennessean, I have met and known to some degree some of the most prominent leaders of our time, from Bill Frist to Al Gore to Alex Haley, and I must say without fear of exaggeration that John, in his way of nearly invisible leadership, was as great as any.

  Today my heart is broken. I will miss the boundless intelligence, energy and optimism of John, Sandy and Chase. I hope that all of Colorado reaches out to Katy to show her that she will never be alone in this great state that her parents made much better.

• December 24, 2007

  1 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  titancain writes:

  How many news stories do we hear about white women or girls disapearing? I guess there are no black women disapearing.

  That damn liberal press!

• December 24, 2007

  10:38 p.m.

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  American100 writes:

  This wonderful and giving family are deserving of only praise and prayer.

• December 26, 2007

  2:01 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  DemGuy writes:

  Personally, My thoughts and prayers are with Katy and her family. I've never had the honor of meeting John but knew his name from some of the grass roots politics I was involved with. My thoughts and prayers are also with the Truck driver, and his family. This sounds like a tragic accident due to the weather, and I can only imagine the grief the driver is experiencing due to this. Thats the horrific thing about accidents, is that more then one family has been effected by this. I know that the Parr family has suffered the greatest loss, but I don't know how I'd handle being the one to have ended their lives, regardless of fault.
  I'm not surprised at the citations, but knowing alittle about the workings of things, I have a feeling John Parr would of been cited if he had survived.
  God Bless and Rest in Peace

• December 27, 2007

  9:19 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  rgraff writes:

  I had the great pleasure of working with John on planning and executing a trip for about 75 civic leaders from Greater Philadelphia to Chicago to learn how Chicago created and fosters a sense of regionalism. John was also involved in helping develop a follow-on structure to nurture the spark of regionalism we brought back to Philadelphia. John's calm, focused search for commonality was a critical element to the trip's tremendous success and, I believe, played a small, but significant role in bringing the city's leadership together behind our incoming mayor.

  I find it difficult to comprehend John's passing. His spirit lives on in every decision we make to put our communities' good first in our actions.

  My thoughts are with all those who were touched by his spirit.

• December 28, 2007

  1:38 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Lincoln writes:

  I was shocked to hear the news just now about John Parr and his family being killed in a car wreck. I live in a far-away state, so please allow me to interject that this loss is not simply that of Colorado's alone. And I am just as shocked by the weird entries in this comment space that appear to "blame the victims" for being rich, or to blame the article for not using this tragedy to get on some political soapbox. I never thought of John as being "rich" except in friendship, compassion and visionary thinking. That is how he will be remembered--and his life celebrated--by the tens of thousands of us who were lucky to work with him professionally, or at least to hear his thinking.

• December 30, 2007

  7:40 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  smalltownboy writes:

  I grew up in Kentland, IN, as did John. He wasn't rich then. Since I haven't seen him in years, he may have become so, but I remember a skinny kid who was in 4-H, grew up on a farm, and decided to move west and do things. Several of the above comments seem pretty bizarre.

  It might be best for people not to use someone's misfortune to make an unrelated point and to get on with their lives, as three members of this family cannot.

  Dale T

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