This is a remembrance of Chas Chamberlin. I suspect you did not know him.
I also suspect he would not be on board with Water Education Colorado and Fresh Water News honoring him in this way. But that would have been just another of the spirited arguments we had over some 20 years of working together.
He died suddenly the day after Christmas last year, leaving a huge hole in the lives of his beautiful wife and three grown children as well as his three grandchildren, his many friends, and his colleagues here at WEco and Fresh Water News.
For nearly a decade, he was the visual force behind Headwaters magazine, Fresh Water News, and WEco’s Citizen’s Guide (now Community Guide) series. The graphics and maps WEco and Fresh Water News have become known for were of his creation, as were the gorgeous front covers and pages that made up the magazine and guides.
He was an artist and an early adopter of digital art, creating electronic imagery that is common now, but that was little known more than 20 years ago.
It was in the news arena, however, that he made his living. He came to the Rocky Mountain News after stints helping shape the images of such other papers as the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Detroit Free Press.
He could work for hours and hours on end, a habit he said he picked up peeling potatoes on a U.S. Navy ship. Throw any new piece of design, mapping or graphic software into his lap and he would have it mastered within minutes, or so it seemed.
Toss out an idea, and almost as quickly, it was transformed into an elegant graphic or map that, when added to a water story, made it easy for anyone to grasp.
In 2002, as a catastrophic drought gripped the state, I began covering water at the Rocky Mountain News. Chas had recently started working there. I was out on the White River in Rio Blanco County reporting on a group of ranchers who had volunteered to give up their right to divert water temporarily so that Colorado Parks and Wildlife could pass some of its stored water down past the ranchers’ diversion points, helping stop a looming fish die-off. The effort succeeded only because the ranchers generously agreed to participate. From the field, I called my editors and said ”I need a map of this irrigation system, but I don’t know if we can get the data and get something designed in time to meet deadline.”
I should not have been concerned. When I drove back to Denver a day later, the irrigation system, precisely located, drawn and properly labeled, showed up on a map that we published with the story, giving thousands of readers the ability not just to read a narrative, but to better understand the on-the-ground context and logistical intricacies of what the ranchers and the state were doing to save the fish.
It was classic Chas Chamberlin. He set a high bar for hard work, creativity and excellence. And he did so with thoughtfulness, kindness, and good humor.
It was a true honor and privilege to have worked with him. He will be deeply missed.
-Jerd Smith, Fresh Water News Editor
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