23 Shares
Denver business leader and former National Western Stock Show chairman Ron Williams was named Citizen of the West, although Williams will not receive the award this year due to the Stock’s Shows postponement. (Provided by National Western Stock Show)
The National Western Stock Show’s 2021 postponement has been disappointing for countless participants and attendees, even as it’s allowed the complex’s $1 billion construction project to push forward.
But its highest honor, the Citizen of the West, could not skip a year.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” said Ron Williams, the 74-year-old
business leader, philanthropist and former National Western Stock Show chairman who received the award this week. “But I knew I’d be terribly appreciative if I did. There are a lot of great candidates for it here, but I’m honored I ended up being the one for this coming year.”
-National Western Stock Show
DENVER The National Western Stock Show is proud to announce Ron Williams as the 2022 Citizen of the West. This prestigious annual award recognizes those who embody Western pioneers’ spirit and determination and perpetuate their agricultural heritage and ideals. A committee of community leaders selects recipients.
Williams has been selected for this esteemed honor. Still, in light of the 2021 National Western Stock Show postponement, he will receive the award at a dinner in January 2022 at the National Western Events Center. Proceeds from the event support 100 scholarships the National Western Scholarship Trust awards annually to students that attend colleges and universities in Colorado and Wyoming and major in agricultural science, rural medicine or veterinary medicine.
In a year that saw a new virus emerge as one of the state s leading causes of death within weeks of its arrival amid a global pandemic, Colorado lost leading political and civic figures, pioneers who left their mark and helped shape the state they left behind.
Through Dec. 30, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported 3,803 people in Colorado had died due to COVID-19, and 4,687 patients had the new coronavirus at their time of death, including deaths from other causes.
Steve Farber, a founding partner and president of powerhouse, Denver-based law and lobbying firm Brownstein Farber Hyatt Schreck, died March 4 at age 76. A friend and adviser to presidents, senators, governors and mayors, the legendary attorney negotiated deals for the Denver Broncos, Denver International Airport and the E-470 highway authority and oversaw the committee that brought the 2008 Democratic National Convention to Denver. After receiving a transplanted kidney from his son Gregg in 2