Eric Sampson

Eric Price Sampson was born August 5th, 1950, in Hayden, Colorado to John Constantine Sampson, Jr. and Joanna Faith Stevenson. He grew up in Marshall, Colorado with his younger sister Morgan Lee, on a small farm surrounded by acres of open space and irrigation ditches to roam on and in. The family often visited with relatives at the Stevenson grandparents’ cabin in Hahn’s Peak, Colorado and explored mountains and deserts near and far. He graduated from Fairview High School, Boulder, Colorado in 1968. He met Jane Carpenter, his partner of 37 years, in 1970.

While never one for formal education, Eric loved to learn and read voraciously, he memorized both poetry and engineering specifications, and knew more scripture than some pastors. Indeed, Eric was very well educated in his own way.

Eric loved a good meal shared with good people especially after a day of hard work or hard play. His greatest joys were introducing the people he loved to each other and then telling stories about them, the more embarrassing the better. From a young age, he enjoyed “putting one over on the man;” and he was not afraid to speak his mind or to stand up for his beliefs which included voting in every election he could. Eric served on the Superior Town Council, standing up for residents having a say in such important issues as the Rock Creek annexation. He was also a volunteer firefighter and Assistant Chief with Cherryvale Fire Department.

As a young man, Eric built a reputation as a top-notch welder and machinist and in 1977 he and Jane started Wheel Works Precision Machining in Superior, Colorado. Together with Barry Snyder, they formed Rocky Mountain High Wheelers, a group that entertained thousands of Coloradans in parades and demonstrations. He was a pioneer in the mountain biking industry as a high-tech frame builder under the name Rock Creek Bicycles in 1980 and proceeded to haul bikes all over the Rockies in the name of research, testing and product development. He was a part of the Marshall Crowd and cycled, skied and climbed mountains with some of the best climbers of his era, including Paul Sibley, the Udalls, Karl Arndt (aka Dikken), Billy Roos, Marty Shea and Sasha Montegue. Eric and some of his friends formed a casual “Seamsters Union” as they sewed innovative camping and outdoor gear. He worked bike racing events all over the country with his friend Raggs Bowker, saving all the tee-shirts (that weren’t worn to shreds) that he earned at those events as mementos. Eric would stay with Raggs in Erie when he’d go up for the annual gathering at Sibley’s in Marshall every August.

Eric and Jane loved visiting friends, including Annabelle and Don McClung, Jack Chivvis and Linda Lovell, MaryAnne Bavaria and Mike Rust, and riding around the town of Salida, Colorado. In 1989 they purchased a turn of the century adobe house for the crazy-low price of the back taxes and proceeded the epic task of digging it out from under the trash it was buried in and began remodeling and restoring. They were founding Board Members of KHEN with Trish Cullonen and Doug Rausch, Bonnie Weisel, Colleen Kunkel, Patty Turner Baldwin, Dave Ward, Mike Minor, Sandy Swett and many others. He enjoyed joining the coffee klatch most every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Bongo Billy’s and then Cafè Dawn, including Ed Quillen, Forrest Whitman, Ralph Taylor, Rod Ottley, Adam Meyer, Ed Berg and Ray Bush. Eric was a member of the Whiskey Appreciation Society and often ended a long day at Hattie’s, “A Bar for the Rest of Us'' where liberal and progessive thinkers of every shape and size including Terry and Terri Warren, Mike Rosso, Patrick Hawkins, Betty Plotz and Mary Barton, gathered to trade stories and swap lies. . .  uhhh, exaggerations.

Before his plans for remodeling the adobe house were finished, circumstances had changed and he lost heart for the work. The world was changing, his parents were aging and dying, he and Jane had split up and his beloved town of Salida had been discovered by tourists, so he was ready to move on to another adventure.

Remembering how much he loved the climate and culture of el Valle de San Luis (he never referred to the area by the English name) and the Rio Grande Valley down through Taos through to Albuquerque, he started looking for a piece of land with water. In 2012, after being shown several gringo-style properties, the realtor finally believed Eric when he said he wanted farm land with water and showed him this piece with a trashed out trailer and ten acres of good farmable land on the Acèquia San Rafael del Guique. 

Because Eric valued the quality of one’s character more than the circumstances of one’s birth, he quickly became a valued parciante. He swapped tools, equipment and knowledge, helped neighbors and friends with cattle, haying and as an extra driver. Eric was particularly fond of the many Borregos, traveling to Albuquerque and Alamosa for anything from doctor visits to tractor parts. He was glad to lease his land to the Mendez family for farming organic vegetables as his moral code was to put the land and water to good use and his health no longer allowed him to do the work of keeping it in hay. Eric was proud of becoming a part of the community here in El Guique. He embraced the vibrant culture, the deep traditions, the diverse and hard working people and the incredibly beautiful lands of this place. As often as people suggested that he should get help, or move to assisted living or move back to the adobe house in Colorado with Becky, Eric would reply, “My heart is here. I don’t want to die anywhere else.” Eric got his wish, dying peacefully at home with no one attending but little Inèz, his New Mexico heeler. She will be joining Trevor’s family in ABQ.

Eric is survived by his sister Morgan Lee Stott, her two sons, Christopher and Dominic, his Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Schuyler, and Jane Carpenter. He will be missed by many, including his “adopted niece and nephew” Becky Longberg and Trevor Clancy, who cared for him during his last several years when he was troubled by a series of health issues and surgeries. In writing this, undoubtedly people have not been named who were important to him and influential in his life. There is no intention to make less of your grief. As Eric would quote from Dame Julian of Norwich, 1373, “All will be well and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” And then he’d follow with, “Hijita, tears speak more eloquently than words. They are the messengers of unspeakable love.”