Warren Rovetch

1926 - 2017

Warren Rovetch was a man of action. Nothing held him back. He had little respect for obstacles or hidebound rules. He was guided by a sense of optimism, adventure and possibility. Born in Detroit in 1926, Warren attended Central High School and Wayne University. He was a Fulbright scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, where he received an MPhil in Economics. At Oxford he married the love of his life, the remarkable, beautiful Gerda Fox. In 1957 they moved to Boulder, where he was the Regional Director for the Foreign Policy Association. Warren was a visionary, with quick understanding and piercing insight. He was a brilliant writer and speaker, and he knew how to tell a joke. Warren was a consultant to school systems, colleges and universities, and state governments. He cared passionately about education as a way to better society and give everyone a chance. His conviction that working people needed access to higher education led, through his work with the Colorado legislature, to the creation of what is now Metropolitan State University of Denver. He launched a Denver center for high school dropouts; he worked with historically black colleges and universities; and his textbook and teacher training program, Foundations for Learning, created a new paradigm of learning used by major school systems across the country. His firms included Education Research Associates, Campus Facilities Associates, Education & Economic Systems, and Higher Education Planning Systems. Warren also developed properties including the historic Coates House in Boulder, and an environmentally based education and kayaking center on the Columbia River. Warren's travels and keen observations come alive in the books he wrote in his eighties: The Creaky Traveler in the North West Highlands of Scotland, and The Creaky Traveler in Ireland-Clare, Kerry and West Cork. In Tales of a Footloose American: 1941-1951 he chronicled his adventurous early years, from running his father's grocery store single-handed at 14 so his father could take his first vacation, to the 1946 World Student Congress and his extraordinary exploits in postwar Europe, to his studies at Oxford. Warren was impatient with rules and red tape. He was a man of great compassion and integrity who worked without fanfare to help those in need find a way up in the world. His life exemplified his catchphrase: "When in doubt, do right." The son of Ben and Ethel Rovetch, Warren is survived by Gerda, his wife of 65 years; daughters Jennifer Rovetch, Emily Rovetch Whitman, and Lissa Rovetch; and grandchildren Kia Nishimine, Niko Nishimine, Sam Whitman, and Kate Whitman. To him we say, as he said to us so many times, "You done good." A celebration of Warren's life will be held on Sunday, March 12, at 2:00 (Daylight Savings Time) at the Chautauqua Community House in Boulder.