Bill Roberts

If anyone ever loved life, it was Bill Roberts: He loved to laugh, to write poetry, to root for the Avalanche, Nuggets, Broncos, and the Rockies. He loved music, opera, theater, dance, movies, travel, and good books. He loved eating fine food and drinking great wine at interesting restaurants with his really good friends. Indeed, the friends were far more important than the food, which was often just an excuse for him to meet with buddies and tell jokes and tall tales. Bill adored his sweet, loving dogs Princess and Reggie. But more than everything and anyone, he loved his wife and best friend, Irene. The two were inseparable. They shared everything, especially a wonderful sense of the ridiculous, up to and including the current state of politics. Bill's courtship of Irene was the stuff of the ridiculously sublime. Every week in the summer of '56, on his day off, Bill drove 200 miles to have dinner with Irene and her parents, to take Irene to a movie, drive her home, and then to drive back to D.C. and his job in cancer research. Irene's father once quipped, "He's either crazy or he loves you a lot." Irene beamed and said, "I think he loves me." The two were married shortly afterwards. Bill was very proud of being born and raised in the nation's capital. He was a graduate of Roosevelt High School and was class president his senior year. He was a recipient of a full scholarship to American University, where he earned a degree in chemistry. In retirement Bill developed his love of poetry, writing, by his estimation, more than 10,000 poems in 15 years, with publication in 200 literary journals and reviews. Here's an excerpt from one of his poems, "Spring Draining," published in Slow Trains. The poem combines his love of words with his love of baseball and, particularly, the eternal hope that is Spring Training. "I escape the icebox of Colorado, our hometown Rockies getting poised for a real run at the Pennant." Aside from his wife, Bill is survived by his sister Eileen and brother Jim. His sister Betty predeceased him. Bill will be missed by everyone he loved, especially by his nieces and nephews in Arizona, Maryland, and Georgia. He will be missed by everyone he made laugh and by everyone who shared laughter with him. There will be a Memorial Poetry Gathering and Open Mic for Bill on April 25, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Navah Coffee House, 3013 W. 104th Ave., Westminster. Poets and friends of poetry are invited to attend. Memorials may be made in Bill's name to The Humane Society of Boulder Valley, 2323 55th St, Boulder, CO 80301 or TRU Community Care, 2594 Trailridge Drive East, Lafayette, CO 80026.