Ilene Minerva Gutjahr

Ilene Minerva Gutjahr, age 97, passed away on July 11, 2025. She was born in Fairview, Montana, in 1928 and spent her youth in a farming community near Williston, North Dakota. She attended George Washington University and went to nursing school in Fargo, North Dakota, where she graduated first in her class and received her RN.

Ilene moved to Denver in 1950 and worked in Denver hospitals before marrying her husband, Harold, on July 12, 1957. In a marriage that would span one day short of sixty-eight years, they would enjoy two children, Karen and Paul (Cathy), and two grandchildren, Isaac (Mina) and Jeremiah (Joely). She is survived by her husband, children and grandchildren.

At her core, Ilene was creative and artistic in temperament. She loved to produce beautiful things, and she became an accomplished (and prize winning) Tole, Rosemaling and landscape painter later in life. She loved flowers and surrounded herself with them at every opportunity, and her home was remarkable for the various artistic - and often international - knickknacks that adorned it. Many of these knickknacks came from their over forty cruises and land tours around the world.

A private family service will be held at Fort Logan Cemetery.