September 15, 1947 – May 12, 2025
Darrell’s waiting is done.
He received the call on May 12, 2025. The time had come to be reunited with his beloved wife, Catherine, who had been waiting for him since Oct. 7, 2023.
When she left, he really did not know how to go on, but he used his farm upbringing and his Vietnam military service training to overcome his loss while he waited. They were married for 52 happy years.
He was born on Sept. 15, 1947, in Ute, Iowa, a small farming community. While growing up he learned to work hard and to love outdoor sports, especially pheasant hunting and fishing at lesspopulated, hard-to-reach lakes and streams. He was accomplished at skeet and clay shooting as well. He stated many times that back then “school interfered with his sportsman’s life.”
After graduation from high school he joined the United States Army, serving two tours in Vietnam between 1966 and 1969. He became a staff sergeant. Darrell was awarded not on but two Bronze Stars for meritorious service. His second Bronze Star award stated that he obtained “outstanding results despite the adverse conditions, and with a sense of urgency he completed the mission setting an example that inspired his associates to strive for maximum performance.” That quality would become his signature skill in the work world.
After the military Darrell worked in Omaha, Nebraska, doing heating and air conditioning.
In Omaha he met Catherine Elizabeth Woodard, also from Iowa, and they were married on Sept. 11, 1971. Darrell would later work for many years in the natural gas business. His ability to lead with urgency and to accomplish the job even in adverse circumstances made him irreplaceable, and he would go on to become the manager. They moved from place to place when the district office had problems, or prior managers were let go. He would arrive to assess the battlefield, then, with a calm and kind manner, begin to heal the wounded and set an example for his replacements on how to get the optimum results quickly without causing hard feelings.
This took him and Catherine to many places including Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and the Colorado towns of Glenwood Springs and Montrose (not just once but twice), Frederick and finally the Ouray-Ridgway area. He retired from Kinder Morgan Gas on Dec. 31, 2002.
Darrell and Catherine spent very special years living outside Ridgway in a home they adored with special neighbors and friends that they had grown to love over the years. They eventually moved to Montrose as they aged and enjoyed gardening and cooking.
Darrell was preceded in death by Catherine, his parents Daniel T. and Helen Mae Hartigan, his older brother Daniel and his younger brother Michael. He is survived by his sister Mary Collins of Massachusetts, and his sister-in-law Pam Hartigan. He and Cathy did not have any children.
Both he and Catherine were generous donors to the Botanical Society and the Welcome Home Alliance, which helps veterans in our area get the services they need, something very near and dear to Darrell. The last two years he was surrounded by his close friends John and Debra VerStraete, Joe Trainor and Bobbi Browner, Tim and Vicky Davis, Don and Ann Rash, Scott and Deb Hunter, and Mesa Jetton.
He will be remembered for his smile, warmth, caring for his friends and his amazing generosity, including the many coffee makers or other items that randomly showed up in a box shipped to friend’s porches complete with coffee beans. We know his broken heart is healed and he is sitting with Cathy by some hidden lake in heaven drinking coffee. A memorial military service will be held graveside on Saturday, July 12, at 10 a.m. at Grandview Cemetery in Montrose.
Ouray County Plaindealer • 2025
