Montrose honors distinguished alumni

MONTROSE —  Roberto Córdova and Jack Pixler will be awarded the Montrose High School 2008 Distinguished Alumni award during today’s graduation ceremonies, the Montrose Education Foundation, Inc. announced Friday.

Pixler will be awarded the Montrose High School 2008 Distinguished Alumni, posthumously. His wife Betty will accept the award on his behalf.

“Being involved in his community was obviously very important to Jack Pixler — he served the Montrose/Olathe community well,” according to his nomination. During his senior year at Montrose High School in 1944, Pixler was recognized for his athletic contributions to the football and basketball teams by being named to the All-State teams.

After high school, he enlisted in the Navy and served the country during the war. He attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, playing collegiate football, basketball and baseball. His career in banking began at the Olathe bank and he worked his way up to president and chief financial officer of what is now Wells Fargo Bank.

Pixler has a history of community service: he served on the first School Accountability Committee, and as president of the Montrose Chamber of Commerce, the Olathe Rotary Club, and the Montrose Rotary Club. He volunteered for projects including the Black Canyon Golf Course and the Dallas Ski Area. For 20 years, Pixler served on the Montrose Memorial Hospital Board.

Following a courageous battle with cancer, he passed away in 1991.

Roberto Córdova was born in Montrose. He graduated from Montrose High School in 1965 and received a four-year football scholarship to attend Western State College in Gunnison, Colo. He graduated in 1969 with a major in Spanish and Education, and taught for one year at Florence High School, in Florence, Colo., where he was also an assistant football coach and head wrestling coach.

He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1970, trained as a helicopter mechanic/door-gunner; he was ordered to serve in Vietnam but ended up serving in Germany until 1972. In the fall of 1972, Córdova entered graduate school at the University of Colorado at Boulder where he earned a Ph.D. in Spanish linguistics in 1977. From 1972 to 1973, he attended the Colorado Army National Guard Officer Candidate School and became a Second Lieutenant. Córdova retired from the Colorado Army National Guard in 1990 with the rank of Major, Field Artillery.

Córdova taught at the University of Northern Colorado from 1977 until 2004 when he retired as professor emeritus. He taught Spanish grammar and phonetics as well as Mexican and Hispanic history, heritage and culture classes. He also taught in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico on three different occasions.

Córdova helped establish several organizations and projects to help the Latino/Mexican community and has served in many leadership positions including, co-founder and former president for Candelaria Association and Greeley League of United Latin American Citizens Council #30005.

Córdova received honors including local, state, and national LULAC Man of the Year; UNC Favorite Professor Award, Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Service to Youth Award, and distinguished alumni, Western State College.

He is married to Betty Córdova, who was a Greeley Central High School counselor. They have two children. Their daughter, Nicole, graduated from the University of Nevada, and their son, Damion, graduated from West Point Military Academy and is currently a Major, in the Army Reserves.