Benita Bristol, Routt County Trustee

Benita Bristol, who joined Colorado Mountain College’s Board of Trustees in 2007, is also one of the college’s longest supporters. She is a lifelong resident of Steamboat Springs, born and raised about 15 miles south of Steamboat, where she attended a one-room schoolhouse. In 1985, in her early 60s, Bristol achieved a lifelong ambition by earning a degree at CMC. She has been involved with higher education in Steamboat Springs since the inception of Yampa Valley College in the late 1950s – as a booster, employee, student, volunteer and benefactor – in a way that truly represents all the ways a community college like CMC can positively impact people’s lives.

Bristol was sworn in as Colorado Mountain College’s District 5 (Routt County) trustee in December 2007. At 85, she brings a lifetime of experience in the community and with the college to the trustees’ table.

Bristol grew up on a ranch south of Steamboat, riding a horse to school as child. After attending Barnes Business School in Denver in the early 1940s, she moved back to her hometown, married Everett Bristol and worked as a bookkeeper for various businesses and institutions. Bristol has been employed her entire adult life, even as she volunteered her time for various community causes and raised four children: Debbie, David, Dan and Diana.

Her commitment to higher education in Routt County runs deep. She and Everett were at the original meeting where plans for Yampa Valley College were set into motion. She volunteered as a host for prospective students and their families, and was active in fundraising for the college over the years. When the college considered joining the Colorado Mountain College system, she and Everett traveled throughout northwestern Colorado to garner support for a higher-education taxing district, a required component of all CMC campuses. At the age of 60, Bristol returned to college to study political science, graduating with an associate of arts degree in 1985. Everett, who died in 1989, was a longtime board member at CMC.

It was also at the age of 60 that Benita and Everett began climbing Colorado’s fourteeners – peaks with elevations of 14,000 feet or more. “We didn’t want to get old and wither away,” she recalls. They managed to reach the summit of 34 of the state’s 54 fourteeners.

In the early 1990s, after Everett died, Benita was invited to be the first woman member of the Steamboat Springs chapter of the Kiwanis Club. She remains active with the organization to this day.

She currently oversees two scholarships at the college, one in her husband’s name and one in their family name. Both are reserved for foreign students, many of whom she’s stayed in contact with over the years. In addition to being one of the CMC’s newest trustees, Bristol, who has worked her entire adult life, has been employed at CMC as a greeter and switchboard operator.

“I would like to see CMC grow some. I’d like to see all the campuses work together to keep it viable,” Bristol says of her vision as a trustee. “I think the college is a very important part of the community. The kids who come here are fortunate because it’s small and we can give them individual attention.”

Back