Carol deBerniere Whitaker
1954-01-04 2022-05-19
Carol went to TJ until her senior year. Some of her close friends requested that she be listed in our Memorials in honor of her memory. Below is her obituary.
Carol deBerniere Whitaker, a retired investment banker and artist, lived her own life according to her own terms and passed peacefully at her Denver home on May 19, replaying videos from her childhood at Grand Lake in her mind. She died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 68.
A Colorado native, Carol was born on January 4, 1954. She graduated from Kent School in Kent, Connecticut in 1972, and from Colorado College in 1975, from which she won an award for her thesis on solar energy as an alternative energy source. She earned her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago in 1977.
Following business school, she began paving the way for other women in the male-dominated field of investment banking. From the 1970s onward, Carol had a distinguished career in investment banking and corporate finance, particularly in the field of telecommunications. Her projects included negotiations for mergers and acquisitions, work with private equity funds and with international institutions. Businesses she worked with included Norwest Venture Partners, Nassau Capital (Princeton Endowment) and Chase Manhattan Bank. She worked for Montgomery Securities in San Francisco from 1982-1984. She was the youngest person ever to hold the office of Treasurer at Reynolds Metals Company in Richmond, Virginia. She also sat on numerous corporate boards in the telecommunications field.
Upon her retirement from corporate work in the mid-1900s, Carol returned to Denver, to provide closer support to her parents, Spier and Jane Whitaker. In Denver she would also embark on a second career as an award-winning sculptor and artist. Carol always sought to capture the beauty and gentleness of the human spirit in her work. Her art, showcased in Southwest Art Magazine, included paintings and sculpture that now reside in private collections throughout the Americas and Europe. Locally, her sculptures have been installed at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and at the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose, Colorado.
She believed the first two-thirds of her life were miraculous. While she never married, she embraced numerous loves-both of people and the out-of-doors. She loved cooking, painting, scuba diving, hiking and fly fishing. She received a certificate from le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France in 1977. While in college, she was highly accomplished in downhill skiing.
Her love of skiing led Whitaker, along with two other partners, to purchase the ski area resort known as Berthoud Pass Ski Area in 1987. The group expanded the acreage, renamed it Timberline Skiing and converted it to off-piste skiing for advanced skiers.
An active member of the Denver community, she dedicated many of the later years of her life to philanthropy and civic engagement. She served on several non-profit and foundation boards, including the Colorado Historical Society, the Colorado Historical Foundation, the Denver Botanic Gardens Foundation, Colorado Public Radio, the Byers-Evans House Committee, and the Art Students League of Denver.
Carol deBerniere Whitaker, a retired investment banker and artist, lived her own life according to her own terms and passed peacefully at her Denver home on May 19, replaying videos from her childhood at Grand Lake in her mind. She died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 68.
A Colorado native, Carol was born on January 4, 1954. She graduated from Kent School in Kent, Connecticut in 1972, and from Colorado College in 1975, from which she won an award for her thesis on solar energy as an alternative energy source. She earned her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago in 1977.
Following business school, she began paving the way for other women in the male-dominated field of investment banking. From the 1970s onward, Carol had a distinguished career in investment banking and corporate finance, particularly in the field of telecommunications. Her projects included negotiations for mergers and acquisitions, work with private equity funds and with international institutions. Businesses she worked with included Norwest Venture Partners, Nassau Capital (Princeton Endowment) and Chase Manhattan Bank. She worked for Montgomery Securities in San Francisco from 1982-1984. She was the youngest person ever to hold the office of Treasurer at Reynolds Metals Company in Richmond, Virginia. She also sat on numerous corporate boards in the telecommunications field.
Upon her retirement from corporate work in the mid-1900s, Carol returned to Denver, to provide closer support to her parents, Spier and Jane Whitaker. In Denver she would also embark on a second career as an award-winning sculptor and artist. Carol always sought to capture the beauty and gentleness of the human spirit in her work. Her art, showcased in Southwest Art Magazine, included paintings and sculpture that now reside in private collections throughout the Americas and Europe. Locally, her sculptures have been installed at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and at the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose, Colorado.
She believed the first two-thirds of her life were miraculous. While she never married, she embraced numerous loves-both of people and the out-of-doors. She loved cooking, painting, scuba diving, hiking and fly fishing. She received a certificate from le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France in 1977. While in college, she was highly accomplished in downhill skiing.
Her love of skiing led Whitaker, along with two other partners, to purchase the ski area resort known as Berthoud Pass Ski Area in 1987. The group expanded the acreage, renamed it Timberline Skiing and converted it to off-piste skiing for advanced skiers.
An active member of the Denver community, she dedicated many of the later years of her life to philanthropy and civic engagement. She served on several non-profit and foundation boards, including the Colorado Historical Society, the Colorado Historical Foundation, the Denver Botanic Gardens Foundation, Colorado Public Radio, the Byers-Evans House Committee, and the Art Students League of Denver.
Carol was a beautiful soul both inside and out. When we first received our drivers licenses, Carol and I would take weekend trips far above Central City to visit our favorite alpine meadow. She had the vision and talent of an accomplished artist even in high school. I sorely missed Carol when she moved back east for her senior year, and we fell out of touch after that. But, whenever I think of her I have fond memories of such a talented and kind person.
tribute by Mark Melnick