Throughout his years in Durango’s business community, R.W. “Nick” Turner Jr. was a civic leader who helped convince Colorado’s General Assembly to make Fort Lewis College a four-year degree institution, helped persuade the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad not to close the Durango-Silverton line and was a key mover in raising money to build Bodo Industrial Park. Turner died Monday at his Durango home. He was 87.

Born on June 6, 1927, to Claudine and R.W. “Dick” Turner Sr., Turner came from a family with deep roots in the area. His great-grandfather, John C. Turner, came through the area with the Baker Party in 1860, and the family was granted land in the Animas Valley in 1863.

After graduating from the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell in the same class as Toh-Atin Gallery founder Jackson Clark Sr., Turner served in the Navy and attended Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

He joined his family’s finance business in 1955, eventually helping to establish a bank with branches in Durango, Ignacio, Silverton and Pagosa Springs. After he sold the banks, they went through several mergers until becoming the Wells Fargo Bank branches in the area.

Jasper Welch, co-owner of Durango Space, has a favorite memory of dealing with Turner when Welch was in his mid-20s, working as executive director of the Durango Chamber of Commerce, and Turner was the bank president.

“There was a rumor that First National Bank owned the chamber,” Welch said. “And while it wasn’t true, First National was putting in more money than the other banks. So, I went to see Nick to ask him to increase his membership from $300 to $1,000. He said no, and I was too young to know I was supposed to leave. I stayed until I walked out with a check for $1,000. I was told later that was quite an accomplishment.”

It was as a civic leader that Turner was best known. After being part of a consortium that convinced the legislature to move FLC from the Hesperus campus into Durango in 1955, he became a key player in helping it become an institution that could grant bachelor’s degrees.

“Nick and Jackson went up to Denver in January and stayed for the whole session to lobby for Fort Lewis to become a four-year college,” Mary Jane Clark, Jackson Clark Sr.’s former wife, said. “(Charles) Dale Rea, who was the president then, went up when he could, and other people went up occasionally, but Jackson and Nick weren’t leaving until the bill passed. People in town raised some money to help pay for the hotel suite.”

In 1960, when the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad wanted to close the Durango-Silverton route because the company was in the freight business, not the tourism business, according to historian Duane Smith in his Durango retrospective Rocky Mountain Boomtown, Turner joined a group of businessmen to lobby the railroad to keep one of the area’s prime economic generators going.

And then there’s Bodo Park, an expansion of warehouse, light manufacturing and office space that helped Durango attract businesses such as Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Turner was one of the founding members of the Durango Industrial Foundation, which purchased the Bodo property, in 1974.

“There’s a reason there’s a Turner Drive,” Welch said. “Originally, a group of bankers and businessmen went up to Denver to get some federal money to buy the land, but the feds had too many requirements, so they came back and collected pledges from businesses to raise the money. It was quite an effort.”

abutler@durangoherald.com

Memorial contributions

At his request, no formal service will be held for R.W. “Nick” Turner Jr. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to the charity of one’s choice.

In 1947, he married Wanda Horrell; the marriage later ended in divorce. In 1977, he married Mary Ann “Dolly” Elder. For the past 34 years, they had divided their time between Durango and Wickenburg, Arizona.

Throughout his life, Turner served boards in Colorado and Arizona and was a member of numerous organizations. An avid skier, golfer, hunter and fisherman, he was a fan of the Denver Broncos and loved riding his mules with his trail friends.

Mr. Turner is survived by his wife of 38 years, Mary Ann “Dolly” Turner of Durango and Wickenburg; children Jayne Griffith and R.W. “Pete” Turner III, both of Durango; Suzanne Belt of La Plata, New Mexico; Gene Davis of Lafayette; and Sally Weber of Anabel, Missouri; brother Rod Turner of Durango; nine grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.