RANGELY I Blazing new trails is nothing new for the W.C. Striegel Company.
The company specializes in laying pipeline in the rugged and treacherous high country of Colorado and other western states.
Now, thanks to a $1 million gift by the Striegel family, Colorado Northwestern Community College will be turning out future engineers to carry on the legacy of the longtime Rangely company. The contribution is the largest private commitment in the college’s history.
Family members, including company president Bud Striegel of Rangely, his brother Randy of Lyman, Wyo., who is the company vice president, and their sister Cheryl Olson of Fort Collins, cut the ribbon last Friday on the W.C. Striegel Engineering Center on the CNCC Rangely campus.
“This has really been a project that has been a three-year process,” said CNCC President John Boyd. “What we did, thanks to Bud Striegel and the W.C. Striegel Company was to be able to take a building that was for all intents and purposes worthless. It was basically a facility that was being used as storage. To take it and make it a viable building that will house a wonderful program for this community … this has been a tremendous process.”
Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, whose district includes Rangely, was on hand for the ribbon cutting.
“I want to congratulate President Boyd, Bud Striegel and the family and the whole community, because this accomplishment takes more than one person,” White said. “It takes more than Bud’s generosity. It takes everybody within the community working together.
“That is one of the things I’m always impressed with when I come to Rangely,” White said. “It is the single-mindedness of all the citizens who live and work here. You’re all rowing a boat in the same direction and that is so important. So you should all be proud of what you have accomplished.”
Cheryl Olson spoke on behalf of the Striegel family.
“I’m so proud of everything that has been done here,” Olson said. “I have strong ties to Rangely and although I don’t make it back very often I’m very proud of what you all have accomplished here, especially of Bud and Randy, because of their hard work that has made the company succeed this long and the generosity that has been shown.”