Ann Johnston Maer

Ann Johnston Maer (Waring)

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94462052/anne_johnston_maer

A third generation Coloradan, Anne was born in Denver on April 7, 1924 and died on June 28, 2012. A private funeral service was held on June 30 at Fairmount Cemetery.

As a girl, Anne attended Graland Country Day School, the school her mother, Ruth Porter Waring, cofounded.

She attended secondary school at Mt. Vernon Seminary in Washington D.C. Anne graduated from Wellesley College in 1945. Post-graduation, Anne taught at Graland for 10 years. In 1955 she married Edward Divine White, Jr. They had two sons, Edward Divine White III ("Ted") and James Waring White ("Jamie").

In 1971, Anne married Claude M. Maer, Jr. who survives her. Anne loved to travel and enthusiastically immersed herself into the culture of each country she visited. Anne's and Claude's travels included trips throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. They made numerous trips to Mexico and also to the Cayman Islands.

Anne had a special fondness for visiting Aspen with her family and friends and always looked forward to participating in cultural events such as the Aspen Music Festival and the International Design Conference. She also spent time with family at nearby Norrie Colony on the Fryingpan River, making her cabin there another respite from city life.

Anne was known by her friends for her spontaneity and vibrant personality. Her laugh was loud and her enthusiasm for life was unbounded. Friends and family easily recall the many moments that embodied this enthusiasm. Once, Anne, tempted by the beauty of the freshly fallen snow that blanketed Cheesman Park, decided to drive off the road and straight through the new snow.

Another time she was spotted operating a backhoe at a construction site in Cherry Creek where, on her way back from a tennis match, she had decided to ask the workmen to let her operate the heavy machinery. On another occasion, during the Symphony Ball, this time clad in her evening gown, she convinced a street-sweeper driver to let her operate his machine.

Anne loved art, design, and architecture and her crowning joy was building her home at 895 Gaylord, across from her childhood home at 910 Gaylord and only a few doors from the home of her grandfather, Henry Porter, and her uncle, Will Porter.

She immersed herself in every detail of the house, incorporating what she loved from her experiences and travels, such as vintage doors she found in Santa Fe and tiles she discovered in Mexico. Anne only fully enjoyed the house for 17 years. As she started her slow, decade-long decline due to multi-infarct dementia and Alzheimer's, she was fortunate to remain in her home surrounded by loving caregivers and devoted family.

She is survived by her husband Claude of Denver; her sister Ruth Waring Halpenny of Seattle; son Ted White and his wife Nancy, her three grandchildren Katie, Sam and Annie, all of Denver; and her son Jamie White and his partner Andy Sirotnak, also of Denver.

Anne was a member of the Porter family, a prominent pioneer family that first arrived in Colorado in 1860 and was involved in the establishment of many of the early business and civic activities of Colorado, including business partnerships with the Boettcher family (one of which was investment bank Boettcher & Porter which later became Boettcher & Co.), the first telephone company in Colorado, ranches in Colorado and New Mexico, several of Denver's basic utilities, Denver's first water irrigation system, the first recycling company in Colorado (the Denver Sanitary and Fertilizing Company which went out of business in 1891), and civic organizations such as Porter Hospital, Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Colorado Symphony, Webb-Waring Institute, and Graland School.

Anne was a long time active and dedicated board member of the Webb-Waring Institute, founded by her father, Dr. James J. Waring who was an adored and respected member of the medical community. He was the first Chief of Medicine at the University of Colorado Medical School.

Memorial Contributions may be made to the Webb-Waring Center. Checks should be made payable to the University of Colorado Foundation, for the benefit of Webb-Waring Center, and mailed to RC1 North, Mail Stop C322, 12800 East 19th Avenue, Aurora, CO 80045. Published in Denver Post from July 7 to July 9, 2012