News Dec 30, Former Aspen environmental activist and avid mountain adventurer Richard Compton died at his home in Massachusetts earlier this month at age Compton also helped form a grassroots effort in to protest Aspen Skiing Co. He and former Aspenite Richard Roth created a group called Aspenites for Restoring our Community, or ARC, that gathered 2, signatures asking Skico to reconsider its pricing direction and offer season passes with no validation fee.
Shoemaker and Compton were among the first full-time staff members of the homegrown environmental group in the late s. Compton was far from an armchair adventurer. He explored the Elk Mountains surrounding Aspen by skis in winter and mountain bike by summer. They backpacked, rock climbed on Independence Pass and undertook other adventures at the camp directed by Dave Farney.
Both men would go on to teach at the National Outdoor Leadership School a few years after meeting. They remained friends and Dawson helped Compton get established in Aspen shortly after Compton graduated from Harvard University in Dawson recalled that Compton first tried to make a living as a writer in New York City after college, then decided to move west.
Dawson invited him to swing by Aspen and met him for a beer at the Hotel Jerome, then provided him a place to stay at an old mining building that was converted into an artist colony and eventually taken over by ski bums. The possibilities were endless. Compton aimed to make a living as a writer, but took on a variety of jobs to make ends meet.
Compton worked construction, painted houses, was a waiter at the Mother Lode restaurant, guided for Dick Jackson and was a ski instructor. He was part of a crew that undertook epic winter outings, often organized by Dawson.
