Englewood, Colorado, is mourning a city leader who never made it home from a mountain hike.

Mayor Pro Tem Joe Anderson died Friday, August 28, while hiking Quandary Peak in Summit County. He was 45.

Other hikers tried to save him after he lost consciousness and stopped breathing. Emergency personnel continued those efforts, but he died at the scene.

The New York Post shared this report on Anderson’s death:

The Denver Gazette detailed the emergency response and the loss facing Englewood:

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Summit County sheriff’s deputies responded to the mountain’s lower slopes early Friday morning, around 6:40, after receiving a report of an unconscious hiker who was no longer breathing. The sheriff’s account said the man died at the scene but did not initially identify him by name.

Englewood subsequently confirmed that Anderson died while hiking in Summit County that morning. The coroner will determine the official cause of death, which had not been announced in the local account of the incident.

Anderson had served on the city council for four years before becoming mayor pro tem in 2023. His current council term was due to run through November 2027, leaving the city facing the sudden loss of a sitting council member.

His colleagues remembered both his work on city issues and the way he treated people around him. Outgoing City Manager Shawn Lewis recalled Anderson checking on him during difficult periods and offering prayer when Lewis’ parents were hospitalized during the pandemic.

FOX 4’s report places the fatal hike on Quandary Peak in Summit County:

The City of Englewood described years of service that began well before Anderson took office:

He worked in pastoral roles at local churches, helped found the Change the Trend coalition and coordinated a major annual volunteer effort that became the Neighborhood Rehab Project. That work helped older residents and neighbors with disabilities get repairs done at their homes.

Voters elected him to represent District 3 in November 2019 and returned him for another four-year term in November 2023. Fellow council members selected him as mayor pro tem that December.

On the council, Anderson worked on housing, homelessness, transportation and stormwater infrastructure. After the city’s deadly 2018 flooding, he pushed for plans to repair and expand the aging drainage system while accounting for what residents and businesses could afford.

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Mayor Othoniel Sierra remembered a man who readily helped friends, neighbors and constituents. He called Anderson’s death “a tremendous loss for our city” and offered condolences to his family and friends.

The Denver Post also covered the city’s announcement of Anderson’s death:

The mountain photograph above shows Quandary Peak’s upper east ridge on August 21, one week before Anderson’s death. It does not show the incident, which authorities placed on the lower slopes.

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This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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