Jim Fitzgerald Obituary

James Guinn (Jim) and Mary Theresa (Terry) Fitzgerald, steadfast partners in life, family and community, y compañeros incansables al servicio del planeta, las plantas y los animales, died together on December 30, 2025, while their home of 55 years burned in the HD Mountains.

Jim, the youngest of four siblings, was born to Betram and Mildred Fitzgerald in Chicago on April 19, 1939. Terry was the oldest of four and the daughter of Robert and Helen Atwood, and was born on February 6, 1935 in Columbus, Ohio. After meeting as Peace Corps volunteers in Chile in 1960, they married in Chol Chol, a small town in the south of the country. The Fitzgeralds traveled throughout Latin America and then moved to Riverton, Wyoming, where they welcomed twin daughters, Janine and Gretchen, into the world. After cold and windy winters, they returned to work for the Peace Corps in Puerto Rico and Ecuador. Realizing their dream to live and farm in the West, Jim and Terry settled in their home in the HD Mountains outside of Bayfield in 1970.

Jim taught Spanish and later Sociology at Fort Lewis College for three decades. In 1964, he earned his master's degree at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and in 1980 he received his PhD from the University of Colorado. Jim was a gentle, playful soul known for his gift with languages and his ability to connect with everyone from academics to students to ranching neighbors. Terry was a registered nurse and received her master's in Public Health from the University of Colorado in 1969. She worked for years at the Community Hospital of Durango and San Juan Basin Health, and helped to bring Planned Parenthood to Durango. She later helped to care for her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and embraced farming and community activism. Terry loved the land and her animals, especially tomatoes and donkeys, and thought there was nothing more important than digging post holes.

During their adventures together, Jim and Terry raised two daughters, Belgian draft horses, sheep, donkeys, cows, chickens, ducks and vegetables. They grew abundant gardens and helped start the Durango and Bayfield farmers' markets. They were founding members of the San Juan Citizens Alliance and Compañeros, local organizations dedicated to environmental protection, water rights, and immigrant justice. Jim and Terry instilled a profound commitment to social justice and environmental protection in both of their daughters: Gretchen worked as a wildlife biologist and forester with the National Forest Service. Janine followed in her father's footsteps, working as an influential activist and teaching Sociology at Fort Lewis College. For sixty years, Jim and Terry's home in the HD mountains was a gathering place and center of learning for family, friends, and young people whose lives they shaped with generosity, humor, and a fierce commitment to social justice.

They are survived by their dog, cats, chickens and a donkey, their daughters, Janine and Gretchen Fitzgerald; sons in law Keith Fox and Jiri Doskocil; grandchildren Hannah and Guthrie Fox and Lenka and Dylan Doskocil; Jim's brother Mike Fitzgerald and sister Sally Rynne (Terry Rynne); and many nieces, nephews, and friends around the world who love them deeply and will always miss them.

A memorial service will be held Sunday, January 11, from 1-5 p.m. at the Exhibition Hall at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. All are welcome.