Landmarks of the West stand tall across the map of Jim Van Liere’s five-decade career as a professional engineer.
Recalling a life’s work from inside his home office overlooking Lake Pagosa, the 86-year-old semi-retiree offered a dizzying tour that included stops at Empower Field at Mile High, home of the Denver Broncos; the Denver planetarium and convention center; through hotels, airports and ski complexes; an art installation that for 28 hours in 1972 stretched 200,000 square feet of curtain across Colorado’s Rife Gap — all of it bearing traces of Van Liere’s touch.
But for the last several years, amid other projects and commissions, Van Liere has trained his focus on a 7.2-acre patch of windswept land off Vista Boulevard.
This once-vacant property has undergone slow but tenacious change since 2013 and, thanks to the efforts of Van Liere and others, has transformed into a place where veterans are honored and remembered in Archuleta County.
As its known today, Veterans Memorial Park of Archuleta County is a vision its board of the same name has helped keep alive for more than a decade, along with multiple county commissions and countless volunteers.
Reflecting on the journey, Van Liere recounted the early days in 2013 when the fledgling board didn’t have enough money for stationary or a checking account, and the progress the park’s made since then.
“It started one day when Larry Olin, who was one of the first board members, came over and we got to talking,” Van Liere recalled. “He invited me to come because I was a registered engineer in the state of Colorado and I had done a lot of work [locally]. They didn’t have any money for anything, so I donated $100 at the first meeting … From there on, I just sort of got involved.”
For Van Liere, his connection to the project was always personal.
“I had three brothers, and three of us were in the Army,” Van Liere said.
“Good ‘ol Bob had to join the Navy,” he added, chuckling. “I had uncles in World War II, one of them was a German POW [prisoner of war] for over a year. He survived. One uncle had three ships sunk from under him.”
Those stories and others are memorialized in bricks that form the walls of a structure Van Liere designed and helped build for the park.
One of the names belongs to his wife Cathy’s brother, Michael Glynn, who, according to the couple, was killed in Vietnam one day before he was due to return home.
Standing inside the cabin the couple purchased in 2004, Cathy described visiting the park and touching her brother’s name in remembrance.
Plans to expand that installation and the park itself are still underway.
Last month, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners granted approval for a $30,000 gazebo that will provide additional shelter for visitors — an improvement Van Liere noted he hopes could be completed by the end of the year.
There are additional plans for a Van Liere-designed memorial area and improvements to the all-season trails, as well.
Someday, the park’s board hopes to add a sculptural tower that will stand 35 feet tall and represent all seven branches of the armed forces. Inside Van Liere’s workshop, a miniature version of the Freedom Tower is already complete.
“It’s modeled after one that I designed for the Oklahoma City bombing memorial,” he said, lightly turning the gleaming sculpture. “It’s all stainless steel, so it’s going to cost a few pennies to build.”
After a career of high-profile projects that have lofted him over canyons and stadiums and at least one case of dynamite — “That was interesting,” he said — Van Liere’s dedication to the one he’s volunteered to help build in Pagosa Springs is perhaps best explained by a few worn words stamped along the edge of his desk.
“Success should be defined as being quietly creative,” it reads.
“That’s been my motto for years,” said Van Liere, who sat surrounded by plans and models of projects past and future.
It’s a motto that’s served him well, and one that’s helped Veterans Memorial Park — “sacred ground,” as Van Liere describes it — slowly become a reality.
Asked about his enduring commitment to the park, Van Liere acknowledged the many local citizens and agencies that have participated in building it, and also those for whom it’s designed.
“I’ve always admired the military,” he said. “I just feel that this is a really great country and we should take care of it, and honor the people that have preserved it for us.”
garrett@pagosasun.com
