High Points: A stellar HOF class
Hope you got your tickets.
If not, it’s wait-list only for this year’s Aspen Hall of Fame Annual Banquet to honor the 2025 class of Inductees. As is the case every year, the tickets to the event — which takes place Sunday, April 13, in the ballroom at the Hotel Jerome — are long gone. The event has become one of the hot tickets in the Aspen community for many years, as the town comes to together to recognize those whose efforts have included significant and lasting contributions to Aspen.
This year, there are four inductees from three different walks of life. Each has made an impact on the lives of many of us.
Going alphabetically, the first 2025 Aspen Hall of Fame member is journalist and guardian of Aspen’s and the Roaring Fork Valley’s history Paul Andersen. The author of 18 books, many about this community, he has been a fixture in local media since 1984, when he began as a reporter and columnist for this very paper, The Aspen Times. He was a part of the Times’ heart and soul up until the day he published his final column in “Fair Game” on March 29, 2001.
In that final column, he reminisced about his initial interview for a position at the Times that took place with two fellow Aspen Hall of Famers, Bil Dunaway and Mary Eshbaugh Hayes.
“I was living in Crested Butte then, so I rode my mountain bike over Reno Divide and Taylor Pass, camped along the way, bathed in Castle Creek, and rolled into Aspen with eagerness for a new adventure. When I told Bil that I had arrived by bike, he smiled, nodded, and hired me on the spot. I was a good fit for the paper, and the paper was a great fit for me. I count my writing career as essential to forming the person I am today,” he said.
This past year, Andersen authored a 10-part series, “In Search of Community,” for Aspen Journalism that is now a book. He just keeps on keeping on.
Erin Fernandez-Ely was the law for the better part of the current century here in Pitkin County as the Pitkin County court judge. From the time she took the gavel in 2000 until her retirement in 2021, she presided over an estimated 30,000 cases and 60 jury trials. If you did the crime, you appeared in front of Judge Fernandez-Ely, who ruled with a firm but compassionate respect for the rule of law.
She came a long way from Venezuela, where she was born to a Cuban-American father and a Scandinavian-American mother. Following law school at the University of Florida, she found her way to Aspen in 1978. For 20 years, she practiced law in Aspen before being appointed by Gov. Bill Owens as county judge in Pitkin County to replace the retired county judge, Tam Scott.
But beyond her rulings, she is well-known for her contributions to the community, including her roles with the Waldorf School, the Aspen Homeless Shelter, and Community Health Services. She served us all well.
Imagine the thousands of adventures that have been launched in the Ute Mountaineer. For each, we have long-time local athletes and entrepreneurs Ruth and Bob Wade to thank. The Ute, as locals know it, opened its doors in the late 1970s in an office space in what was then the Mason and Morse building, moved over to Mill Street, and then expanded in 2010 into its current location in the Elks Building.
It is hard to imagine the past 50 years in Aspen without Ruth and Bob who have walked, hiked, ran, climbed, and skied “the talk” with regularity. Their support and hand in contributing to events like the perennially sold-out Golden Leaf Half Marathon, Aspen Uphill, and Ski for the Pass have provided challenges and memories for countless locals and visitors alike. And their personal involvement in nonprofits, including the Independence Pass Foundation and the Chris Klug Foundation, as well as their support to outdoor educational programs in the Aspen schools is legendary.
Inclusion in any hall of fame is a worthy achievement. But in Aspen, the bar is just a bit higher. All of the 2025 Inductees have led lives that have been exemplary in their accomplishments — and even more valuable in their community contributions.
Well done, and congratulations to all.
