(John Andrews in the Denver Post, May 21) On May 5 in Louisville, Kentucky, hours before the ponies ran at Churchill Downs, a self-described “old warhorse” of conservative politics and Colorado pride breathed his last. George C. Roche III had a lasting impact on America and on our state. Upon me he had an immeasurable influence, noble though flawed, similar to another of my former bosses, Richard Nixon. Herewith, a tribute. Roche grew up on Chalk Creek in the shadow of Mount Princeton. He lived out his retirement at Ouray in the shadow of scandal. The intervening 70 years took him from Regis and the Marines to a doctorate at CU-Boulder and a teaching post at the Colorado School of Mines, then to the presidency of Hillsdale College, a Reagan appointment, and the authorship of a dozen books.

The old warhorse carried wounds as most do. The worst came when a lovestruck young woman, his son’s wife Lissa, took her own life in 1999 after alleging an affair with him. That finished George at Hillsdale and drove him into a seclusion that lasted until news reports last year quoted the son as accepting the father’s protestation of innocence – something many of us had always believed.

More than the diabetes he had battled for decades, I suspect it was heartbreak that killed George Roche – remorse over the sins of omission (at least) which visited such damage on the family he loved and on the college he had led from obscurity to prominence. Seeing tragedy befall a friend, my own heart breaks a little as well.

However there is far more to this remarkable man’s legacy than the never-verified 1999 allegations. What we can’t sort out, eternal judgment will. But his contributions as an historian, educator, and patriot deserve undimmed honor regardless.

(John Andrews in the Denver Post, May 7) Father Time, what a joker. A couple of decades can make old certainties laughable. Back in 1986, Congress and the president struck a bargain that was supposed to settle the immigration issue for good. Millions of illegal aliens were legalized, in return for tougher enforcement at the border and in the workplace. Sounds ridiculously familiar, doesn’t it? Those same 20 years did funny things to this Republican’s former disapproval of Democrat Dick Lamm. As Colorado’s chief executive in 1986, Lamm earned the nickname Governor Gloom for warning about such dangers as a potential “Hispanic Quebec” in the southwestern U.S. We at the Independence Institute called for an imaginary Governor Growth to rescue the state from Lamm, since I was sympathetic to open borders back then.

But today Dick and I are co-chairs of Defend Colorado Now, an amendment to cut off tax-paid services for illegal aliens, except in emergencies or when federally mandated. We’re campaigning for 100,000 signatures in 100 days to put this sensible measure on the ballot. He correctly foresaw trouble in the convergence of Mexico’s social and economic dysfunction with America’s political and cultural cowardice. My optimism was misplaced. Point to you, Governor Gloom.