Enid W. Bauer

Daisy Wilson “Enid” Bauer, 87, was born a coal miner’s daughter on June 14, 1933 in Louisville, Colorado to Arlo and Daisy Wilson. She died at age 87, at Columbine Manor in Salida, Colorado on August 15, 2020.

In 1955, Enid graduated the University of Colorado as a registered nurse. She recalled fondly her experiences as a ski bum, working one winter at a bakery in Aspen and another as a nurse in Truckee, California to be near the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley.

She worked five years in the 1960’s “Knife and Gun Club,” also known as the Denver General Hospital emergency room. Her nursing career included work at Boulder County Department of Public Health and serving as director of nursing for St. Vincent Hospital in Leadville and later at Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver.

Enid married Jerry Bower Maxwell on January 13, 1961 and together had four children while living in Boulder County. They moved back to her hometown of Louisville, where they remodeled a hundred year old house, operated an antique store, and started a ski binding manufacturing company from Jerry’s experience at Lange Ski Company.

She was widowed on a Saturday morning in December, 1972 when Jerry’s car was hit by a train on his way to his office.
In 1976, she met attorney Richard Arnold “Dick” Bauer, divorced father of three children, who later became her husband and business partner of over 40 years as owners of the Ponderosa Guest Ranch (later Ponderosa Lodge) in Maysville, Colorado. They supported a number of social justice causes, most personally in providing food and clothing to an orphanage in Palomas, Mexico.

She was a founding board member of the non-profit wildland firefighter school, Colorado Firecamp. She became a “mom” to countless firefighters, serving up early morning coffee and baked goodies for students and instructors, as she started her long days of cooking and cleaning.
Following a stroke and Alzheimer’s, Enid’s final years were spent as a wheelchair-bound resident of a long term care facility, although she believed she was working again as a nurse, even as she contracted and survived COVID-19.

The family will be forever grateful for the loving care of the Columbine Manor staff, especially for arranging numerous window visits during the pandemic lockdown and allowing her youngest son to enter the facility to be with her on the evening of her passing.

Enid was preceded in death by her husbands Jerry and Dick (earlier this year of cancer), her parents Arlo and Daisy Wilson, brother Ralph Wilson, sisters Nadine Channel, Margie Lazuk, Janice Anderson, Dorothy Hensley, Sonja Estes, and Sandra Sundquist and daughter Thea Littlefield.
She is survived by her sister Cherahl Ross of Boulder, daughters Lisa (Jack) Seeber of Parker and Tena (Byron) Kautz of Denver, sons Skip (Beverly) Maxwell of Littleton, Todd (Masayo) Maxwell of Okinawa, Japan, Kent (Amy) Maxwell of Maysville and Tim (Anna) Bauer of Atlanta, Georgia, fourteen grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

No services are planned. Memorial contributions may be made to Colorado Firecamp, 9008 County Road 240, Salida, CO 81201

Arrangements are with Lewis and Glenn Funeral Home in Salida.

Online condolences may be made at www.lewisandglenn.com

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