Robin Jugl

Robin Birkeland Jugl passed away on May 7 th, 2025. Robin was born in Berkeley, California, on March 7 th, 1966 to Suzanne and Peter Birkeland. The next year the family moved to Boulder, Colorado, where Robin grew up with her older brother Karl. Although Robin spent a lot of time travelling, and she lived in California and Denver, she spent most of her life living in Boulder. On September 14 th, 2002 she married John Jugl in Allenspark, Colorado with a view of Longs Peak and under the changing colors of the aspen trees.

Robin attended school in the Boulder Valley school district, graduating from Boulder High in 1984. As early as elementary school it was clear that Robin made friends easily and cherished those friendships deeply, two characteristics she maintained throughout her life. She had longtime friendships with the people she met throughout her life all the way back to some of her elementary school classmates.

Her childhood was an active one, driven by her father (a field geologist who taught at the University of Colorado) and her mother (who taught fitness courses for the City of Boulder for decades), with weekends and summers filled with skiing, hiking, and backpacking. During the summer her family (and their dog) crammed into an old Volkswagen Squareback, travelling to different mountain ranges to backpack into her father's field sites for weeks at a time. Looking back at the isolation and clouds of mosquitoes, it's a wonder that she maintained such a good attitude about these trips!

In the winters she downhill and cross-country skied with her family, and later her friends, around Colorado and across the western United States. Robin spent her 6 th grade year in New Zealand with her family when her father was on sabbatical leave from the University of Colorado, a trip that started her love of travel. Always friendly and gregarious, Robin also made-and maintained into adulthood-solid friendships from her time in New Zealand.

After high school, Robin spent a year traveling around the world with her parents when her father was on his second sabbatical. Their travels took them back to the south Pacific and New Zealand, and from there they went to Australia, Israel, Greece, and Corsica before returning to Colorado. Robin then attended the University of Colorado, including studying abroad in Italy, and she graduated in 1989 with degree in International Affairs with a minor in Italian.

Robin took her skills and passions for people and travel to the workplace. She worked at the Economic Institute at CU-Boulder, where she helped foreign students get settled into Boulder as they began their studies. After meeting John in Boulder in the late 90's, Robin and John moved to Los Gatos, California where she later worked as a localization project manager for Handspring in Sunnyvale, California. Here she worked with native language speakers to translate documents and manuals into hundreds of languages.

Life in California was full of trail running with her first Weimaraner Kava in the Santa Cruz mountains, surfing in Capitola, skiing in Lake Tahoe and (after a long courtship) getting engaged. With the early 2000's "Tech Wreck" changing the face of Silicon Valley, Robin and John returned to Colorado where they purchased and renovated their first home in the West Highlands neighborhood of Denver and Robin worked in localization at International Language Engineering in Boulder where she again met many lifelong friends which is a common theme throughout her life.

The summer of 2003 found Robin and John riding from the Pyrenees to Paris during the Tour de France where she was captured on film on the summit of Luz Ardiden waving an American flag as Lance Armstrong rode past in a stage win. Other adventures included trips to Barbados, Costa Rica and heliskiing in the Snake River Range with the average weekend spent sleeping in the back of a pick-up truck throughout Colorado with John and their dog. Life was good!

On January 1, 2005 her only child Natasha came into the world and Robin used this as an opportunity to become a founding member of the Highlands Mommies Group or as some like to refer to it as the "Highlands Mommies Mafia." While Robin and her family moved back to Boulder to be closer to her parents, these old friendships were renewed over many holiday events, over many years.

Robin's mom and dad, who lived only a block away in her childhood home, became an integral part of Natasha's upbringing that revolved around the outdoors. From visiting her parent's cabin in Eldora to make fairy houses with Natasha, fly fishing at Lincoln Hills or skiing at Eldora and Steamboat Springs, life was an adventure well lived. Every snowfall Robin would grab her mom, dad, Natasha and her second Weimaraner, Blake, to go cross country skiing around North Boulder Park. Robin also brought her enthusiasm for international affairs into her home when she sponsored an Italian high school exchange student who assumed the role of Natasha's big sister.

Later adventures brought her to the island of Maui where she developed what one would politely describe as a passion for whales. Natasha and Robin lived in Maui during Covid, where Natasha attended prep school at Seabury Hall, but Robin religiously would FaceTime with her parents each Sunday night after a family dinner to share the past week's adventures which included stories about the whale comp pods, escorts, breaches, pec slaps, all of which were captured on her GoPro. And yes, Robin's embodiment of the Aloha spirit made lifelong friends at the Hokulani pool and she was also an organizing member of the "Humpback Hoes" which rarely missed a day on the water during the winter whale season.

Robin's dad passed away on January 25, 2022 and Robin and Natasha returned to Boulder to reunite with John and their third Weimaraner who was hand-picked by Natasha and named Wana (Hawaiian for sea urchin) after Natasha's unfortunate run in with a sea urchin in Hawaii.

Robin's dedication to her family was evident as she stepped in as the primary care giver for her mom and was with her when she passed away on July 3, 2023 after an emotionally draining year. Robin selflessly took care of her mom while she was also battling her own auto-immune disorder. This made her life a struggle at times, although if you crossed her path on the ski slopes or on the water you might never have known.

Robin loved following Natasha's successes as a film student at ASU and was her biggest fan as she watched Natasha go from Milan to Berlin with two other girlfriends during last summer's Red Bull "Can You Make It?" race across Europe with no lodging, phone or money and with only Red Bull as currency. After Natasha's successful arrival in Berlin, the family and Natasha's friend Rosie rendezvoused in Portugal where we drank and ate our way from Lisbon to Porto (and every surf town in between) in celebration of Natasha's spirit of adventure which she inherited from her mom. Just this past year Robin and John clocked in 20 days of skiing in Steamboat with plenty of powder filled days and constant outreach from her many friends helping to lift her spirits.

Confucious said "A healthy (wo)man wants a thousand things, a sick (wo)man wants only one." Robin's life was not defined by her later challenges-which she faced with Norwegian stoicism-but by the love of her immediate and extended family and friends. She will be dearly missed by everyone who knew her or even briefly crossed her path in life.

Several years ago, Robin and her family sponsored a teenage girl to attend a Maui Surfer Girls summer camp which changed this young girl's life – and ours. In keeping with Robin's spirit of adventure and giving, a memorial scholarship has been set up with Mana O Maui.

Donations to the Robin Jugl Memorial Fund will provide scholarships for programs like Maui Surfer Girls teen and women surf camps and the Surf-Turf afterschool program, where youth connect with nature, learn life skills and discover their inner strength. This fund will support deserving individuals to get access to important role models and outdoor leaders. To donate, please visit https://manaomaui.org/robin-jugl-memorial-fund.

A celebration of Robin's life will be held at the Rayback Collective in Boulder on Saturday, August 9, 2025 at 11 am.

On behalf of the Jugl and Birkeland Ohanas, Mahalo nui loa for your friendship, love and support. Robin, a hui hou kakau…