Memorial Funds

We would like to spotlight here three friends of the Institute who continue to be remembered through funds established in their names:

Following the death of Eric Konheim in 1991 in a sea kayaking accident, his parents, Bud and Carolyn Konheim, and friends honored his informal bequest to RMI by establishing the Eric Konheim Memorial Fund. The fund now supports a summer intern in RMI's Green Development Services.

Carolyn Konheim wrote of her son: "At twenty-five, Eric…wrote a will leaving everything to Rocky Mountain Institute. Not many twenty-five-year-olds write wills, but Eric knew he was living on the edge. Each summer since college, Eric has spent four months kayaking the rivers of the West — about sixty of them, from the Notak above the Arctic Circle to nearly all of the rivers of the Colorado Basin.…Eric came to know Rocky Mountain Institute in 1988, when he was researching water conservation measures that might save the wild and scenic rivers that he loved.…Working hard and living frugally, he amassed quite a bit of money, which he left to RMI. He would be pleased to know it is being used to advance the ideals to which he clung so tenaciously."

A longtime frend of RMI, Margaret Frantz was a gifted musician, enthusiastic mother, master gardener, and imaginative cook. She was active in Boulder Ecocycle and lived her own life as an example of minimal consumption. She died in 1989, after a six-month battle with lymphoma. Her parents, John and Mary Frantz, have continued her support of RMI with generous gifts in her name, funding an annual summer internship.

The David Tice Memorial Fund, established with gifts from the family and friends of David Tice, sponsors an annual summer internship with the Windstar Land Conservancy. RMI's land and facilities manager until his death in 1999, David was admired for his quiet thoughtfulness, gentle demeanor, and passionate professional commitment to holistic land management.

David's involvement with the Institute began several years before joining the staff, when he was the lead environmental planner on a real-estate project in Virginia that also involved RMI's Green Development Services, and subsequently participated in several other projects with RMI. The relationship deepened in early 1998, when David relocated to Colorado to work on a temporary contract for RMI, and then was hired to fill the vacant position of facilities manager for RMI and the Windstar Land Conservancy.

Is there anyone you would like to honor in this way? Please contact Jim Kozel at jkozel@rmi.org or (303) 245-1003.