Cordell Sherwin “Chris” Christenson passed away peacefully at home on October 27, 2016, where he could gaze out across the cow pasture toward Hartman Rocks and watch the three horses grazing and galloping playfully across the fields. It was a view he never tired of, with spectacular sunsets and a resident fox stalking its prey. Toward the east he often watched the evening sun bathing “W” Mountain in a dusky glow and would wander outside marveling at the cloud formations. He had wanted to live in Gunnison since he first came through as a teenager, although he didn’t move to paradise, as he called it, until 1997. Chris was born December 23, 1935, in Regent, North Dakota, where his grandparents, who were immigrants from Sweden and Norway, farmed. It was a town of only 400 people, so friends were special. His childhood was spent mostly outdoors where he learned to hunt and fish, and developed a love for all creatures. The digging up of a buffalo skull, Indian arrowheads, and the imprints in sandstone in the Cannonball River of a 3-toed horse sparked a lifelong fascination with archaeology and dinosaurs. He was born to Emery Clarence Willmer Christenson (known as Willmer), and Margaret Holter. His father worked in the grain elevator and later owned a Gambles hardware store. When Chris was a sophomore his father decided to move to a larger town and searched the West for another Gambles store to run (passing through Gunnison, where Chris noticed the Gunnison River, worldrenowned for fishing). He finally settled on Kaysville, Utah, north of Salt Lake City. That venture lasted only eight months and they returned to North Dakota, this time to Dickinson, where Chris graduated from high school and went to junior college, while helping his father out in his restaurant, the Café de Morais (named after a local historical figure). During that time he nurtured another lifelong interest, in Theodore Roosevelt and history. He then went on to the University of North Dakota in Fargo, where he graduated with a degree in business. He married Mary Ann Armstrong in 1958 while a senior in college. After graduation Chris got a job with J.C. Penneys in Grand Island, Neb. They had two children, Brandt Robert, born February 26, 1960, and Nancy, born October 27, 1962. Chris’s career path took him to another Penneys store in Council Bluffs, Ia. and then to Omaha, Neb. Meanwhile, he and Mary Ann divorced in l965. Putting in 56 hours a week as a department manager fi nally drove him to change jobs and locations, and he arrived in Denver, Colo. without a job in hand but knowing he wanted to live somewhere near hunting and fishing. He landed a job with Scott Rice Company as a salesman of office furniture and supplies to businesses and corporations, developing loyal clients, especially during rounds of golf, over a 20 year period until 1993. He then went to work for Eastman Company in a similar capacity, but after four years decided to take early retirement after it was bought out by Office Depot. During his time in Denver he met and married Joyce Schneider, and they had a daughter Rori Lea Christenson (born May 21, 1969), who still lives in Denver. He and Joyce divorced in about 1987. He lived during that time in Englewood. Every year he would venture off to Nebraska or North Dakota for pheasant hunting, a real passion of his, taking along his favorite chocolate lab Mocha, the perfect hunting dog and love of his life. Meanwhile, Chris joined the Colorado Mountain Club, where he met his current wife, Susan (Fisher), in 1995. Actually, she spied him in the RTD parking lot returning from a hike and heard him talking to the driver about seeing him at the singles dinner that week. She conspired to sit across from him and discovered he was a year away from retiring and moving to Gunnison. They were married in Arapahoe County on April 25, 1997 and moved a week later to Gunnison. Thus began a life in the outdoors, a life he had dreamed of for decades. He went elk hunting, upland bird hunting, antelope hunting, fly fishing, hiking, and played golf. He and Susan served on the board for Habitat for Humanity in 2000-2010 with Chris serving as president from 2007-2010. He also had an avid interest in World War II and airplanes, being too young to participate in the war, but always wishing he could have been a fighter pilot. He and Susan loved camping in the red rock desert of Utah with its beautiful geology and plentiful Anasazi Indian ruins and petroglyphs. They camped a dozen times in Yellowstone, with its amazing geothermal features and wildlife (including seeing a mother grizzly and three cubs magically appear out of the woods 50 feet away). As a boy he developed a love for the mountains, where a boy from the flatlands of North Dakota marveled at the forests and lakes on the Beartooth Highway and Spearfish, South Dakota, and the forests of Idaho where he worked for the Forest Service one summer during college. Over his lifetime Chris became an accomplished photographer of the outdoors, had a green thumb for flowers and gardening, and loved old Westerns and sitcoms from the 50s. He also had a lifelong passion for both the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Denver Broncos. He loved music and had a fine singing voice, even participating in a barbershop quartet during college. He loved reading about the mountain men of the West and decided he had been born a 100 years too late. He also lamented the changes over the years in access to and attitudes toward hunting and fishing. In the old days, he developed relationships with farmers in North Dakota and Nebraska, who then let him onto their land for free, and he frequented the small town cafes for their delicious home cooking. His favorite fishing and hunting spots became crowded with people hunting from ATVs and not doing “catch and release” so that they became over-fished. Chris was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia 25 years ago and was told he only had five years to live. It was another 20 years before it went into stage two, and although that went into remission, it caused aggressive squamous cell skin cancer. He valiantly fought it for four years but with the unbelievable care and compassion of the local Hospice team and the loving care of his wife Susan, he was able to spend his last few months at home, where he remained his optimistic, uncomplaining self to the end, surrounded by old friends and new, and even two black lab “therapy” dogs. He was not sad at leaving this world, saying he had had a wonderful life, had done everything he’d dreamed of doing, and wondered what else could a person ask for. He will be sorely missed by his and Susan’s friends and families. Both Hospice and Susan’s hiking group friends gave them both incredible support and can’t be thanked enough. His ashes will be scattered at his favorite fishing holes and hunting spots by Susan and his fishing and hunting buddies. Never wanting a fuss, he requested that there be no memorial service. He is survived by his wife Susan and ex-wives Mary Ann Karstens of Omaha, Neb. and Joyce Schneider of Denver; his son Brandt (Ronda) Karstens of Valley, Neb. and their children Brandon of Omaha, Brianna (Corey) Duff ek of Lincoln, Neb., and Brittney, of Flagstaff, Ariz. his daughter Nancy Karstens of Omaha, and his daughter Rori Christenson of Denver. Also by his sisters SanDee (Paul) Kane of Menifee, CA, Darlys Eggers of Valparaiso, Ind., and brother Weldon (Priscilla) Christenson of Lebanon, Ore. Weldon was also known as Chris, a Norwegian tradition (as in Oley Olafson, Pete Peterson, Lars Larson), causing a lot of confusion at family get-togethers when someone would yell “Chris!” Donations in his memory may be made to Gunnison Valley Health Hospice, 120 N. Boulevard, Gunnison, CO., 81230, or to Pheasants Forever, P.O. Box 129, Knife River, Minn., 55609 — an organization devoted to preserving upland game bird habitat.
