Edwin Richards "Dick" Bigelow

Edwin Richards "Dick" Bigelow, died peacefully on January 15, 2014 at his home in Denver, Colorado. Dick was born in New York City on April 6, 1927. His parents, also from New York, were Alice Blum Bigelow and Edwin Hicks Bigelow. His sister, Florence Bigelow Schaff, now deceased, lived in Fairfield, Connecticut. He graduated from St. Bernard's School in New York City, St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, and Yale University in Connecticut. He served as an aviation radioman in the Navy Air Corps toward the end of WWII. He married Melissa Weston on June 7, 1950. Upon graduation from Yale, Dick decided to follow Horace Greeley's invective to "Go west young man." Consequently, he went into the oil business in Midland, Texas as a roughneck for a drilling company and later as a landman for an independent exploration company. In 1952, he moved to Denver with a small independent oil company. Subsequently, he founded an exploration company, Whittaker, Bigelow and Company and later was a founding partner of a securities company, Mountain States Securities. As time progressed, he formed a venture capital company called Bigelow Investment Company, which raised money, principally in the east for deals in the west, in such areas as oil exploration, commercial and residential real estate and securities trading. Dick was a member of the Denver Country Club, the University Club, the Denver Athletic Club, the Garden of the Gods Club and the Vallejo Gun Club. He was President of Club Limited, a nationwide hunting and fishing organization, and also a member of the Roundup Riders of the Rockies, the Arapahoe Hunt Club and the Plum Creek Polo Club. He was also a member of several New York clubs including the Knicker- bocker Greys, the Brook, the Racquet and Tennis, Piping Rock and the New York Yacht Club. Throughout his life, Dick enjoyed playing polo, golf, tennis, squash racquets and skiing, as well as upland game and waterfowl shooting and freshwater and deep-sea fly-fishing. Dick's infectious laugh and the sparkle in his eye will be remembered by all his dear friends. Dick is survived by his daughter, Bettina Alice Bigelow, who was the joy of his life. Bettina's mother, Joan Turnburke Bigelow of Clearwater, Florida, preceded him in death. Funeral services will be held in St. Martin's Chapel at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Denver on Thursday, January 30, 2014 at 11 AM. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a charity of choice.