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c.-, C) ~ W C.Q , " ,-'. , THE BIRTH OF COLORADO-BIG THOMPSON 7I District Court. Judge Claude C. Coffin then, and for twenty years thenceforth, presided over its creation and the appointment of directors. On September 20, 1937, after a hearing in the Court House at Greeley, he adjudged the district created. J'udge Coffin appointed as the eleven members of the first Board of Directors of the Northern Colorado Water Users Associa- tion the men who were then serving on the board. They were as follows: Charles Hansen, William A, Carlson and Moses E. Smith, Weld County; Ray Lanyon and W. E. Letford, Boulder County; R C. Benson, Ralph McMurray and Ed F. :Munroe, Larimer Coun- ty; Robert J. Wright, Logan County; J. M. Dille, Morgan County; and Charles M. Rolfson, Sedgwick County. The Board elected Hansen as president and Dille as secretary- manager, and they so continued, reappointed year after year- Hansen until his death in 1953; Dille, to this day. These choices proved wise. Dille was the first paid employee, the expediter. These two executives addressed themselves tenaciously to accomplishing the "Grand Lake Project" with energy and consecration to its achievement. They were everlastingly at It. Hansen never would accept any pay for his services. Hansen was not a farmer nor was he connected with irrigation management, but he was a civic leader free from local entangle- ments of competing ditch systems. He was able to make allies of wary rival ditch companies in this gigantic effort. Hansen was the amalgamating force, a tenacious leader at home and in Wash- ington, who never flagged in his effort for this project. To it he became consecrated. He received the Department of Interior Con- servation Award in 1952. Dille received the same award in 1956. Dille, by good work in the administration and development of two irrigation systems in Morgan County, attracted attention as one who got things done. Judge Claude C. Coffin, who himself had vision, was constructive and regarded the big project as sacred. He was the son of a pioneer in irrigation. He made integrity and fitness always the criterion of his appointments to the board, He died in September, 1954, after serving as a district judge for thirty years. Jacob S. Schey of Longmont, experienced in water law, who had supplied important guidance in project matters for fifteen years, succeeded Hansen as president in 1952. He retired in 1955, and was succeeded by J. Ben Nix of Eaton. In addition to Nix the present /'1956] Board of Directors of the Conservancy District are: Colonel vVilliam P. Blair, Sterling; Gordon Dyekman, Loveland; W. D. ]'arr, Greeley; J. C. Howell, Brush; Dudley Hutchinson, Sr., Boulder; Cad H. Metzger, J ulesburg; Ed F. Munroe and John G. :i