Evergreen Honors the Life of Beloved Community Leader Hank Alderfer

After a long and trying battle with Parkinson’s disease, former Evergreen rancher, preservationist and beloved community leader Hank Alderfer passed away in his home at approximately 3 p.m. on December 19th, 2025, at the age of 78.

Born to active community members EJ and Arleta Alderfer, Hank was a passionate civic leader in the town of Evergreen and dedicated his life to conserving the area’s natural beauty, getting his friends and neighbors involved in local civic work and thoroughly documenting the history of the town and its residents.

Anyone who has visited Evergreen has likely felt the impact of Hank’s work without even knowing it. Starting in the mid-’80s, Hank began donating pieces of Alderfer Ranch to Jefferson County Open Space, which converted the land into a major part of Alderfer/3 Sisters Park. The park has over sixteen miles of trails and has brought in visitors from across the country. 

Hank also quickly became known for producing some of the most thoroughly detailed maps of the Evergreen area, as well as for his work as a sawyer. He was one of the first sawyers to find a market for blue-stain pine lumber in the construction industry. Stained wood, which had previously been exclusively used as firewood, is now a staple of Colorado’s lumber industry.

Hank would go on to play an instrumental part in the creation of many other parks in the foothills, including Blair Ranch, Hiwan Heritage Park and Meyer Ranch. He also played a pivotal role in the creation of the Mountain Area Land Trust, which became a nationally recognized organization that has successfully preserved over 27,000 acres of public and private Colorado land.

Hank designed, built, or significantly renovated several essential buildings in Evergreen that are still frequently used as community gathering spaces, including the Center Stage Theater, the Evergreen Lake House and the Buchanan Recreation Center. He perpetuated the strength of the Evergreen community even more as the board director of the Evergreen Park & Recreation District and the Bear Creek Cemetery’s curator and record keeper. 

Although Hank was a well-established community leader, he was very passive in his leadership and often helped his peers come to the right conclusions on their own. Hank’s wife, Barbie, says that he initially didn’t want to serve as EPRD’s board director because he didn’t want to be overly outspoken or demanding of people. “At first, he didn’t like the leadership role, but then he realized he wouldn’t have to vote, so he could just sit and watch while everyone else settled things,” she remembered. He inspired many of his friends to get involved in local civic organizations through similarly subtle guidance.

In addition to his wife, Hank is survived by two sons, Nathan and Eric. Hank and Barbie bonded quickly after they met in 1978 and remained happily married for the rest of Hank’s life. “Our differences weren’t a threat,” Barbie said. “They were a fertile field, and our love was the byproduct.” 

After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2002, Hank was inducted into the Jefferson County Hall of Fame in 2007 and received the Evergreen Leader of the Year Award in 2010. 

Although Hank was no longer able to build houses or take on other physical projects, he continued to be a wealth of knowledge in regards to the history of Evergreen. Former Canyon Courier editor Doug Bell invited Hank to write a biweekly history column for the paper. The column spanned seven years and was Hank’s last major project, completed with initial edits from Barbie in the editing phase. Local journalist Hannah Hayes helped the Alderfers reprint all of Hank’s columns into a published book titled Yesteryear in 2016.

As the Parkinson’s progressed, it became increasingly difficult for Hank to get through each day without pain or inconvenience. “These last five years were really difficult,” Barbie said. “He was progressively losing his mind, his ability to speak… Still, he never complained, and he was accepting, although he disagreed with [the situation] radically.” 

Hank was still able to attend “Thank Hank Day” in November of 2025, where many of Hank’s relatives, friends and loved ones gathered to celebrate and show gratitude for all that Hank had done for their land and community.  

Just over a month later, on Saturday, January 3, many of the same people who had attended Thank Hank Day gathered at the Lake House to celebrate Hank’s life and mourn his passing. 

Pete Eggers, Hank’s close friend of fifty years and a longtime member of the EPRD board, served as the emcee for the gathering. “It is the citizens here who are the stewards of this land, and it was Hank who saw the vision for us to do it,” Eggers said at the event, adding that it was Hank who had been one of the original driving forces for Evergreen’s citizens to get involved in local civics, work that has continued to this day. He helped them recognize the power of community, and it is apparent that residents of Evergreen are as ironclad as ever in their desire to support and improve their town.

Over the course of the scheduled speeches at the very Lake House that Hank helped design, followed by the open invitation for all attendees to come up and share their own stories, it quickly became apparent that one person would never be able to comprehend the full extent of what Hank accomplished throughout his life. Hannah Hayes remembered that he made frequent appearances at her social studies class to teach students about Evergreen history. Later, another woman shared that Hank helped organize a gathering for women to discuss sexual assault and harassment in mountain communities. 

Hank’s passing closes out a difficult 2025 for the Evergreen community. “It’s been a tough year for Evergreen, and I will be forever grateful for the love and resilience of this mountain town,” Whitney Ellis, the event’s organizer, shared. Ellis lost her father, John, who was another important historical community member, last March.

Still, the emotions Ellis spoke of were the ones that felt the most emblematic of the gathering: Gratitude, love and resilience. The sense of community and friendship was strong during the event, with different audience members spotting one another and pulling each other into long, tight embraces constantly throughout it. Copious rows of chairs were lined up in the back after the tables were filled, and even more people had to start flanking the walls as the event proceeded. 

“As much as I loved Hank, I think his great legacy is bringing this community together,” Willie Matthews, another friend, said at the podium. That legacy was felt powerfully during the event, with the community he had built crying and laughing together even following his passing. When the audience was asked who got to attend any of the Alderfers’ legendary parties, dozens of hands shot up on the spot. The barn where they hosted those festivities still stands by the West Trailhead of Alderfer/3 Sisters Park.

“He was such a complete guy,” Eggers said. “He had the wherewithal to get the community to follow his vision, but we all did this together. We were such a tribe.” That tribe has continued to find new projects to pursue and more connections to build in the wake of Hank’s passing. Life may be temporary, but if we live with the ambition to build something great for our communities, the impact of our love and dedication will find a way to become evergreen. 

The Alderfer family currently has a GoFundMe set up to help defray the final costs of the January 3 gathering and to get financial assistance in their time of need.