Teaching was everything to Ann Dewey

Mother had passion for outdoors

By Kate Martin

Every moment was a teachable one for Ann Dewey, and on the last day of her life, she didn’t let one pass.

Shadow and Rajia, two dogs owned by her son, Eric Sipes, 26, had a run-in with a porcupine. As her other son, J.D. Sipes, helped pulled the quills out of its muzzle, he noticed the quills didn’t have barbs on them.

His mother took the quill in her hand and had J.D. run his finger down the quill.

“‘One side of the quill is smooth, and the other side is barbed,’” were his mother’s words, said J.D. Sipes, 28.

Dewey died Monday in a car crash 10 miles southwest of Laramie, Wyo. The 54-year-old Loveland woman and her younger sister, Helen Reikofski, of Denton, Texas, were preparing for a two-week trip to Paris, France, to help Reikofski’s twin daughters settle in for a month abroad and to visit the Normandy American Cemetery.

In accordance with family tradition, Dewey spent Memorial Day weekend putting flags on the graves of her grandfather and her father, a career Navy man. And after placing flags on their graves, she spent the rest of the weekend at the family’s cabin near Laramie, one of her favorite places in the world, J.D. Sipes said.

Her planned trip to France was the longest trip her sons and sister could remember her taking in at least five years.

“She had never been to France,” said Reikofski, who also was injured in the crash. “We had French tapes with us in the car. And her, knowing so much about plants and animals, she was looking forward to the gardens in Paris.”

J.D. Sipes said he learned something on every trip with his mother.

“Even if we were traveling from one town to another, she’d break out the ‘Roadside Geology of Colorado’ book,” he said. I was probably the only kid who knew how to say Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine).”

Dewey continued that passion for teaching in her professional life. For five years, she worked with Larimer County’s Parks and Open Lands Department, training volunteer naturalists as the education coordinator.

Fifteen of Dewey’s co-workers gathered Wednesday at the Bison Visitor Center near Carter Lake to remember her passion for the outdoors and her love of teaching.

Dewey would go to great lengths to identify animals, from looking at tracks and hairs to examining their scat (droppings), said Patricia Brennan, a friend and former co-worker.

“She collected it,” said K-Lynn Cameron, open lands manager. “I was on a backpacking trip in Wyoming and was sure I came across some wolf scat. I couldn’t believe it, I picked it up and brought it all the way back.”

Books telling the reader how to identify anything in the Mountain West from trees to geology line the shelves in Dewey’s office.

Her walls at the visitor center are stacked to the ceiling with antlers, horns, animal skulls of all sizes and shadowboxes with Colorado Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths).

Educational materials cover the floor and spill out of boxes. She kept a bug collection in the freezer until she found out it could be harboring worms.

Dewey wanted to train the next generation of naturalists to appreciate the land, understand the animals and respect the environment, volunteer coordinator Dutch Fla Haven said.

“She loved any time she had the opportunity to teach, but when she had the opportunity to teach kids, there was more of a spark in her eye,” he said.

Dewey’s infectious enthusiasm, her “joie de vivre,” seemed to motivate others to want to make her smile.

Dewey also volunteered her time with the Boy Scouts of America and recently had become active at Crossroads Church, J.D. Sipes said. He said his mother had an impact on nearly everyone she met.

“My only hope is she realized what impact she had on people,” J.D. Sipes said. “I don’t think she knew how important she was to everyone.”