Remembering Jerry W. Ahlberg '68
1946-1997

By VICKY GITS '68
On April 5, 1997, Jerry W. Ahlberg '68 finished a 50-mile-long cross country endurance run from Sacramento to Auburn, Calif. He was 50 years old.
In Jerry's mind, this was only a warm-up for the next challenge: the Leadville 100-mile on August 17, a 25-hour pain festival that takes participants over a 13,000-foot mountain pass.
In his life he had run a couple dozen marathons, climbed 23,000-foot Mount Aconcagua in Argentina (1989) and trekked through Sikkim, a part of India (1996), and the former kingdom of Mustang (1993), now part of Nepal.
Jerry ran the Mile High, the Boston, and the Phoenix marathons. He ran the 13.4-mile Pikes Peak Ascent in Colorado Springs almost every year for 20 years. He finished the Turquoise Lake 20-mile snowshoe race.
Besides being a diehard runner, Jerry was an avid mountain and ice climber, a Colorado Outward Bound instructor and an expert in wilderness emergency medicine.
"He didn't care whether it was a good climb or a bad climb, he just liked being out there in the wind and the weather. He always had a good time," said his friend Steve Matous.
After 25 years of running and climbing, Jerry's body was a ball of muscle and grit. We complained about our expanding middles; Jerry kept in marathon shape. He told his friends, "Put in more miles." He advises everyone to consume more hot sauce, more coffee and more beer, key elements of his fitness regimen.
In April, about a week after he ran the 50-mile race, Jerry went to the doctor. A small lump under his arm, which eight months earlier had been deemed probably harmless, suddenly became a painful growth the size of an orange.
He received the diagnosis on April 16. Tests showed the mass was a sign of late-stage, malignant melanoma, a form of cancer linked to sun exposure.
Jerry took leave from his position as director of capital planning for Colorado Outward Bound School where he had worked for 19 years. As development director from 1991 to 1997, Jerry raised over $10 million for the school.
Two things made Jerry successful at the job. "He was good at details," said Mark Udall, a climbing buddy and former director of Colorado Outward Bound. "He was also good with people. He would make time for them, even if it meant putting his own life on hold."
Jerry rarely took a vacation, Udall said, unless it was for an Outward Bound course. School administrators flinched at the 300 hours Jerry had banked for a rainy day. Ultimately, cancer forced him to take the time off.
Enrolling in a clinical trial at the University of Colorado Cancer Center in Denver, Jerry battled for remission. Doctors hoped to stop the disease with an experimental combination of chemotherapy and interleukin 2. Treatments consisted of five days in the hospital, with two weeks recovery in between, and lasted from June through July. The disease resisted the massive drug assault, which took a terrible toll on Jerry's strength.
Between hospital stays, Jerry's friends from Colorado College phoned or flew to town to visit. Eben Moulton, Wilber James, Fred Worden, Bob Sears, Nick and Diana Binkley, Bill and Mary Beth Frerichs, Philip "Wink" Davis, Wendy Stokes, Bruce McCaw, Mick and Kathy Seeburg, Thor and Donna Thorsen, Mac and Cathy Taylor, Lynn and Bill Howard, Rory and Luisa Donaldson and I formed a cross-country support system. CC graduate Steve Andrews of Denver, a former Outward Bound staffer, filled in as an emergency-care back-up person. Jerry's good friend and companion, Leav Bolender, took on the responsibility of managing his household, medical care and social life and set up an Internet communication system.
When the cancer spread to his brain and other organs, Jerry fought back with inspiring tenacity and presence of mine. "Dignity isn't a strong enough word," said Steve Matous.
Jerry was calm and low-key, even when things were falling apart, said Doug Rovira, a professor of medicine at CU and friend for 20 years. "There's major weirdness going on here," is what Jerry would say in his worst moments.
"He put up with terrible side effects. When it didn't work and there wasn't anything else likely to help, he didn't race from one ineffective treatment to another. He filled the time as meaningfully as he could," said Rovira.
Always gracious, Jerry kept in constant touch with his friends. He planned his memorial service; stipulating there must be plenty of beer, and it must be good beer.
In the days he had left he visited classmates from Colorado College. One day he announced he would no longer be needing his running shoes.
In September, Jerry received a national honor, the Joshua L. Miner Award. It goes to a person in the Outward Bound organization whose commitment and contributions have improved the lives of students and staff. Jerry asked that the $2,500 award be directed to a scholarship fund for Outward Bound participants.
He died at home in Denver on Oct. 1, surrounded by friends. His memorial service was Oct. 18 at the Denver home of lifelong friend and CC graduate Roy Donaldson and his wife, Luisa.
Colorado College and Jerry's friends have set up a memorial fund to be used for a scholarship fund in Jerry's name or to improve college facilities in some way. Donations may be made to the "Jerry Ahlberg Memorial Fund," c/o Zell Rector, 14 E. Cache la Poudre St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903.
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