Clifford Elwood Ohman

Clifford Elwood Ohman passed away peacefully on Saturday, July 1, sixteen days shy of his 91^st birthday and the 68^th anniversary of his marriage to Donna Lucille Keever Ohman. Cliff met Donna at Rockmont College in 1953, and they were married in 1955.

He is remembered by his wife, Donna, his sons, Brent, Mike, Greg, and Chris, his daughter-in-law, Kitty, and his son-in-law, Nathan. He has four grandchildren: Dan, Becky, Taylor, and Hannah, and four great grandchildren: Liam, Ava, Nora, and Lucas. He was the sixth of nine children: Maxine, Bea, Jim, Bob, Marilyn, Audrey, Jeanette and Gayle.

Cliff was gentle and soft-spoken. He was a listener and a storyteller. He was a generous and loyal son, brother, husband, father, and friend. An instinctive caretaker, he was always ready to extend his capable hand to family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.

He had an affinity with small children. They were drawn to him, and his genuine interest in their stories, struggles and adventures held them there.

He worked for Continental Airlines for more than 35 years. After enjoying retirement for a few years, Cliff took a job with King Soopers and later Westminster Mall. He was as much in his element at work as he was at home. He got the job done and done well.

He had a special relationship with his mother, Blanche. He lost her when he was only 25, but he shared her with his family in stories and memories throughout his life.

Cliff was born in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He wandered the mountains and meadows with his father, Russell, carrying little more than a small pack of provisions and a bedroll, laying the foundation for a lifelong love of the outdoors with each step.

He took his wife and sons camping, fishing, and four-wheeling in his beloved Scout with his youngest seated in a small chair strapped between the two front bucket seats with a bungee cord. The family played and swam in streams and rivers and climbed rocks and mountains together. His sons came home sunburnt, mosquito-bitten, and despite Donna’s best efforts, dirty, but they came home safe with the lasting gift of time spent in the wilderness, time in a place with fewer roads and fences and more space for the sky.

Cliff tinkered in his yard every weekend and spare evening that he could. He was unstoppable. When his knees would no longer allow him to crouch to pull weeds or tend to flowers, he got a gardening stool. When the gardening stool did not work, he laid out kneeling pads and did his gardening reclining on his side while propping himself up on one elbow. He demonstrated the same grit and resilience in every aspect of his life.

More than any material thing or story, Cliff’s legacy is the character and integrity that defined his life. His marriage to Donna is the clearest evidence of who he was. She was his wife and his partner, and everything else in his life returned to that, even in the last moment of his life. The family did not live in constant harmony. Life with four sons is lively, sometimes chaotic, but together, Cliff and Donna provided a constant, true model of what a marriage, and a family, can be.

Services will be held at Horan & McConaty at 7577 W 80^th Avenue, Arvada, Colorado on Tuesday, July 25 at 1:00 p.m.

Please consider a donation to one of the organizations below in his Cliff’s name if you would like to remember him formally.

Boys Town
Provides youth care and health care services to children and their families, supports research in hearing, language and related communication disorders and childhood neurobehavioral disorders, and advocates for juvenile justice reform.
Boys Town | Boys Town

Project Angel Heart
Delivers medically tailored meals to people living with cancer, HIV/AIDS, kidney/heart/lung disease, and other severe illnesses.
Home - Project Angel Heart

The National Pancreas Foundation
Provides research grants, advocates for new and better therapies, and provides support to patients, caregivers, and health care professionals for all types of pancreas disease.
Home - National Pancreas Foundation