Robert Sides: Yampa Valley College Pioneer Student

By cmcgenesis | 05/15/2017 |

YVC/CAC alumni Clare Wheeler & Bob Sides

I am so very grateful to have had Lucile Bogue make a visit out to my high school in Los Angeles, leaving literature about her new college in Steamboat Springs. Going over things with the headmaster of my school, I made the decision to enroll at Yampa Valley College*.

I remember well in the fall of 1966, making the drive from L.A. to Steamboat with my mom and dad, and the new adventure I was about to embark upon. Lots of road grading was going on and plenty of sticky mud!

I enjoyed the relationship with the faculty and fellow students. I think the size of the community lent itself to wonderful friendships, friendships that last to this day.

With the blessing of the administration, we got a small radio station going. It wasn’t even legal! That in itself is a story.

Was very much looking forward to my senior year, when the awful news came down. It was the U.S.I.U. (United States International University) takeover, turning our college into a two-year facility, and I’d have to move on.
That hurt! Still does.

(*In 1981, Routt County citizens in School District RE-2 voted 2-to-1 for joining the Colorado Mountain College District in May. The former Yampa Valley College site became the Alpine Campus, the newest member of Colorado Mountain College.)