Sue Anschutz-Rodgers

Sue Anschutz-Rodgers (born 1936) is an American rancher, conservationist, and philanthropist. Owner of the Crystal River Ranch in Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado, she is a strong proponent of conservationism and preservation of the heritage of the American West, and helped implement the legal concept of conservation easements in the state. She is the chair and president of the Anschutz Family Foundation, which funds nonprofits, and also heads the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Fund, which funds projects promoting women's self-sufficiency. She is an active member of many state and national boards. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2017. Early life and family Sue Anschutz grew up in Russell, Kansas, the daughter of Frederick and Marian Pfister Anschutz. Farming was part of her family's history, as her great-grandfather, Christian Anschutz, was one of the German farmers brought to Russia by Catherine the Great to increase the yield in the Volga River valley. Anschutz eventually left Russia for America and started a farm in Kansas. Frederick Anschutz began buying up ranches in the 1950s and tapping them for oil reserves, netting him his fortune. As a girl, Sue accompanied her father on the inspections of his oil fields, and learned to handle horses, brand cattle, and bale hay from the ranch hands. She has one younger brother, Philip, a billionaire philanthropist who heads the Anschutz Foundation. Career Like her father and brother, she is a graduate of the University of Kansas, attaining her bachelor's degree in education in 1955. She began working as a teacher, returning each summer to spend time with her family at their ranch.