Educator embraced challenges
By Virginia Culver
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 02/13/2008 02:08:04 AM MST


Gary Sibigtroth served as superintendent of East Grand County Schools and assistant state commissioner of education. (Courtesy of Sibigtroth family )


Gary Sibigtroth loved teaching and spent most of his 37-year career in rural Colorado schools.

Sibigtroth, 60, who died of Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) on Jan. 29, made a lasting impact on students, said his wife, Darlene, of Parker.

Tributes and well-wishes from former students filled two large scrapbooks before Sibigtroth died.

Sibigtroth's teaching career began in Ouray in 1968.

To make some extra money, he shared school bus-driving duties with another teacher. Every other day for eight years, he drove a small bus to 10,000-foot Idorado Mine to pick up two students.

Sibigtroth had a habit of taking on challenges. On March 22, 1981, he married Darlene Brumley, who had four daughters ranging in age from 6 to 12 years old. The Sibigroths then had their own daughter, Michelle Butler, who now lives in Cortez.

"He stepped right up," said stepdaughter Wendy Lee, of Fort Collins, recalling how Sibigtroth took care of his new family while his wife received cancer treatments.

Sibigtroth was an avid outdoorsman, taking his family on hikes, bike rides, camping and fishing trips and weekly rides in the family pickup over Trail Ridge Road. The only way he could get the girls to go was to promise them candy apples when they got to Estes Park, Lee said.

Sibigtroth was active in the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation, often giving speeches to people with MD and ALS. "I think talking to others bolstered his own strength in facing the disease," his wife said.

Gary Sibigtroth was born in LaSalle, Ill., on March 14, 1947, but moved to Boulder when he was 5. He earned a bachelor's degree in education at the University of Northern Colorado and a doctorate in education from UCLA.

He taught in Ouray and Dolores, where he also was principal, and was superintendent of East Grand County Schools in Granby.

He also served as director of the Southeastern Colorado Board of Cooperative Services in Lamar and as assistant commissioner to the Colorado commissioner of education. Sibigtroth retired in 2006.

In addition to his wife and two daughters, he also is survived by three other daughters, Cheri Wiebelhaus and Christy Thurman, both of Parker, and Cindy Saari, of Centennial; his mother, Arlene Sibigtroth, of Phoenix; a brother, Robert, of Elkton, Md.; and 11 grandchildren.

Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com