I was raised in Pennsylvania and graduated from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Performance and a Certificate of Education.  I spent 10 years teaching private and classroom music in all grades, performing with many Community Theatre companies and Choral groups, and conducting and coaching choirs and choruses.  Currently I am a self-employed sales rep to the gift industry and cover several western states.  As a young person, I agonized over getting an education in music or following my passion for western US history.  I am extremely thrilled to work with Historic Gold Hill, Inc. I got a chance to enjoy both subjects and am passionate about Gold Hill and western history.  I have lived in Gold Hill for over 30 years and am happily married to my husband, Max.

Jane grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but has spent much of her life in Gold Hill, both as a summer person and a full-time resident. An experienced and passionate educator, she earned her BS in English Education at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and her MA in Literature at Middlebury College in Vermont. Jane’s connection to Gold Hill dates back to her great aunt’s initial visits in the 1930s and the summer cabin she bought in 1953, which remains a family home. Jane’s love of history was fed by both her study of literature and the Gold Hill summers of her childhood, and she is particularly interested in the history of The Bluebirds and the mid-century community of “summer people.”

Joan Few is a retired professor of archaeology. She and her husband, Arthur, a retired professor of atmospheric physics, built their home in Gold Hill in 1995 and retired here in 2008. She has been on the Museum Board since 2008 and spent 10 years curating everything in the museum. The museum collection covers prehistory and history of the town and mining district of Gold Hill. She won a “Square Nail Award” from Boulder County Historical Society in 2015 for her documentation of Gold Hill; the first mining town in the first mining district in the territory of Nebraska.

Norm and his wife, Cyndi, have lived in the Gold Hill area for 29 years and he is a big fan of local history. He has been a volunteer with the Gold Hill Museum for over 6 years.

Boyd is a 5th generation Gold Hill resident who spent summers here as he grew up and made this community his adult home in 1971. His grandmother was born in Gold Hill. His ties to this community are deep and he is very committed to the preservation of the history, the culture and the lifestyle of Gold Hill for present and future generations. He obtained masters degrees in Experiential Education and Secondary School Administration from the University of Colorado and has taught in and consulted for programs in Colorado and countries around the world. He is currently retired and when not involved in projects, spends his free time traveling, running rivers and fly fishing.

Jenna was born and raised in Denver, Colorado and has called Gold Hill home since 2020. She graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in Advertising and an emphasis in Technology, Arts and Media. She currently works in Digital Marketing for an outdoor brand. Jenna brings her passion for history and her marketing experience to the Museum board with the hope of increasing local education and awareness about our past.

Sophia Grace Pardo lives in beautiful Lefthand Canyon and is semi-retired. Professionally, she has focused her career as an RN in palliative and end of life hospice care for 30 years. A California native, she discovered her love for mountain life while living in the Sierra Nevada mountains. She values the importance of “place” where one lives and the people who make up community. Learning about local history, gratitude for the surrounding beauty and getting involved in her mountain community presented her with the opportunity to serve as a board member of the Gold Hill Museum. In her free time she enjoys spending time outdoors, gardening and cooking.

Marybeth Neal is a cultural anthropologist with roots in Gold Hill since the 1980s when her family lived here. Her nephews attended the Gold Hill School and her mother was an assistant teacher at the School. Marybeth and her husband moved back to the family home in June of 2022 from Minneapolis. Her dissertation was on the Norwegian Harding fiddle as a symbol of Norwegian cultural identity and tool for community building. Marybeth’s professional career has focused on research and evaluation of civic engagement strategies — in particular service-learning, restorative justice, and intergenerational education.

Jerd is a long-time resident of the Boulder County foothills and moved to Gold Hill in 2018. A veteran news editor and journalist, she has spent the majority of her daily news career in Colorado. In 2018, she co-founded Fresh Water News, a non-partisan, policy neutral news service that reports on water issues across Colorado and the American West. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Evansville and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. She joined the Gold Hill History Museum Board in 2023.