Hickenlooper: “John was a good man, a great man by any measure. Certainly, he was defined by his unwavering commitment to his family, his neighbors, his friends, and his home state of Colorado. He was the essence of a public servant.”
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper spoke on the Senate floor in memory of John Stulp, a former advisor to Hickenlooper when he was Governor of Colorado and a leader in the Colorado agricultural and water community.
“John’s reputation for patient consensus-building is well known throughout our state and trusted throughout our state,” said Hickenlooper on the Senate floor. “We finalized the state’s first-ever Water Plan in November 2015. It certainly would have never happened without his prodigious efforts. He created a framework that will evolve as our state’s climate and demographics continue to evolve. More importantly, in the process, he created an ecosystem, a network of relationships that crossed geographic and political boundaries. And that is one of his many great legacies – his many legacies – that he leaves to Colorado.”
As Governor of Colorado, Hickenlooper appointed Stulp to serve as his top water policy advisor. Stulp led the creation of the Colorado Water Plan, which was finalized in November 2015. Stulp also served as Colorado’s Commissioner of Agriculture under Governor Bill Ritter and was a former Prowers County Commissioner, a State Board of Land Commissioner, a State Wildlife Commissioner, and a member of the State Board of Agriculture.
Hickenlooper continued: “If I did believe in gradations of ‘goodness,’ John and Jane Stulp would be at the top. Even with all the great contributions he made to our state, John’s goodness – I think – is what I will miss the most.”
To download a full video of Hickenlooper’s remarks, click HERE. A full transcript of his remarks is available below:
“I rise today to honor my great friend John Stulp.
“John passed away this past Monday, July 7th. He was with his family in Lamar, out on the Eastern Plains – a place that he loved more than anything.
“John was a good man, a great man by any measure. Certainly, he was defined by his unwavering commitment to his family, neighbors, his friends, and his home state of Colorado.
“He was the essence of a public servant.
“His list of contributions to our state is impressively long.
“He served as Colorado’s Commissioner of Agriculture during my predecessor Bill Ritter’s governorship. I appreciate Governor Ritter introducing me to him, discovering him for me.
“John Stulp was a former Prowers County Commissioner – a Democrat commissioner in a county that’s not well known for Democratic commissioners. He was also a former State Board of Land Commissioner, a State Wildlife Commissioner, and a member of the State Board of Agriculture.
“And, in John’s mind, above all of that, he was a dryland wheat farmer and a cow-calf rancher from Southeast Colorado.
“John’s reputation for patient consensus-building is well known throughout our state and trusted throughout our state.
“In 2011, I was the newly-elected governor and Colorado had already experienced a couple years of drought.
“2011 and 2012 were bad years for drought, and I was convinced that we needed a blueprint – a plan of some sort – to address the gap between the state’s projected growth and its future water supply. To make sure that we had the supply that could match our needs.
“I recruited John to serve as my top water policy advisor. We made it a cabinet-level position, he came to all our cabinet meetings. He was our ‘Water Czar.’
“And it was clear to me that we’d be hard pressed to find anyone that could do the work he did.
“John understood the agricultural community in Colorado better than almost anyone.
“Maybe that’s why when I first approached him with the idea of a state-wide water plan, he wasn’t immediately convinced – actually he was far from it. He was, I would say, more than skeptical.
“He knew how hard it would be to map Colorado’s water supply, to chart a plan to conserve water that we might need in the next 50 years, and to get everybody at the table. And in Colorado we talk about how ‘whiskey is for drinking but water is for fighting.’
“He didn’t think it was a smart idea for me politically as a new governor, to take on an issue that had the potential to be so divisive.
“But, he understood that we couldn’t let our rivers and farms at risk of running dry – and that we needed him, Colorado needed him.
“And he set aside his reservations. Then he rolled up his sleeves and he went to work. He and James Eklund and a lot of other people. It was remarkable to watch them.
“He criss-crossed the state, hosting roundtables, talking with farmers, listening to stakeholders, really hearing them. Trying to resolve the issues and trying to align their self-interest.
“John poured his heart and soul into that plan.
“And, in the end, John accomplished what, well I think even he previously believed would not be possible.
“We finalized the state’s first-ever Water Plan in November 2015. It certainly would have never happened without his prodigious efforts.
“He created a framework that will evolve as our state’s climate and demographics continue to evolve.
“More importantly, in the process, he created an ecosystem, a network of relationships that crossed geographic and political boundaries. And that is one of his many great legacies – his many legacies – that he leaves to Colorado.
“Certainly his family is his greatest legacy, but he did a lot for the ability of Colorado’s future and water.
“You know, when you travel a lot with someone, you spend a lot of miles with them, and you stay at their home, you share their food, you meet their neighbors, you get a real sense of their ‘goodness.’
“I’m not sure there are gradations of ‘goodness,’ but I have traveled long distances with John Stulp, and I’ve stayed at his home in Prowers County where he and his remarkable wife Jane would cook up a barbecue and get me together with some of their neighbors.
“He even loaned my son Teddy a .410 shotgun so he could learn how to shoot.
“If I did believe in gradations of ‘goodness,’ John and Jane Stulp would be at the very top.
“Even with all the great contributions he made to our state, I think John’s goodness – the pureness and the deepness of his heart – is what I’ll miss the most.”
###