Ask Marcy Benson which words best describe her and she’ll pause for a moment, then offer pretty much the same ones those close to her do: Direct, driven, collaborative, confident, good sense of humor.
They also describe her involvement in multiple community organizations as well as being the “first lady of CU.” Her husband, Bruce Benson, has been the University of Colorado’s chief executive since 2008.
“She’s smart,” Bruce Benson declares. “She has great insights and works her tail off. CU hasn’t had another first lady like her.”
A native of Oklahoma City, Benson, 63, is among the 10 Women of Distinction to be honored Oct. 28 at a dinner benefiting Girl Scouts of Colorado.
One of three children born to bank president Ben Head and Mary Head Evans, she credits her parents, who divorced in 1983 and are now deceased, with giving her an “Ozzie and Harriet childhood,” one that laid the foundation for the woman she is today.
“They were both very active, and were great role models. Because of his work, my father was involved in many groups and organizations. My mother, though, she was a real trailblazer. She was the first to do this, the first to do that. She was on the boards of Delta Airlines, Sun Oil and some other multinational companies.” She was 84 when she died in May, after a 12-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
After high school, Benson headed West to become a sociology major at the University of California Santa Barbara.
“I went out there as a Democrat — everybody in Oklahoma City was — but I reacted negatively to all the (student) protests and switched parties.”
From there she went to Washington, D.C., planning to spend just a summer as an intern for fellow Oklahoman Alfred P. Murrah, a former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals who’d been appointed director of the Federal Judicial Center, the education and research agency for the federal courts.
She wound up staying for 19 years.
Once she’d completed her internship, she moved up through the ranks to become administrator of federal probation training. She also was taking night classes toward the master’s degree in criminal justice that she obtained in 1977 from George Washington University.
“Then I got restless and went to work on (President-elect Ronald) Reagan’s inaugural. That got me into politics.”
“I don’t like to waste time”
Recalling her parents’ influence, Benson pauses again to reflect on the words she uses to describe herself. “I think that people look at me as pretty direct and straightforward. I don’t believe in beating around the bush because I don’t like to waste time. Most people appreciate that, but not all do. I used to think I got that way from being around Bruce,” she said, “but I guess I always was that way.”
The couple, who in November will celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary, met when she was director of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships and he was one of those proposed for membership on a regional selection committee.
“There was a meeting at the Broadmoor, and Bill Hybl introduced us,” she recalled.
They hit it off and in March of 1992, Marcy left Washington to move to Colorado, where her family had spent summers in their cabin near Gunnison, and plan her wedding.
At the time, Bruce was busy with his Benson Mineral Group and was active in Republican politics.
So active that he was the party’s candidate for governor in 1994.
“It was an all-consuming way to live,” she says of his unsuccessful bid. “But it was good training for being president of CU.”
Bruce Benson became the University of Colorado’s chief executive in 2008 and gave up partisan politics as a condition of his employment.
Marcy Benson is proud to be known as the first lady of CU, and has helped bring prominence to several of its groundbreaking programs, such as the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center and the University of Colorado Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Clinical Center.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize what an asset Marcy Benson is to the university. We’re getting two-for-one in the president’s office (because the Bensons) work incredibly well as a team,” James Hill recently said for an article produced by the university’s communication office. Hill directs the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at CU’s Aurora medical campus.
Fundraising giants
Perhaps their greatest strength is raising money. They have chaired two major funding drives for CU, the $1 billion Beyond Boundaries campaign and the $1.5 billion Creating Futures campaign. In addition, Marcy helped lead the $273 million Imagine the Miracles campaign for Children’s Hospital Colorado.
Marcy was on the board of Children’s Hospital Colorado from 1997 to 2008. She joined the board of the hospital foundation in 1998, and served as its chair for three years.
She has also chaired benefits for the Denver Zoo, Denver Public Library and The Arthritis Foundation; is involved with the National Western Stock Show, and received, with her husband, the 2011 Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Award for Community Service.
Their days, Benson says, are “pretty intense, so time just zips by and before you know it, entire weeks will have passed and we haven’t had one night off.”
So when they do, they keep things low-key.
“I do cook, but I don’t love it and I’m not good at it, which is why we’ll usually have dinner at a steak place followed by some quiet time at home, catching up or watching football.
“We spend every weekend we can at our ranch near Silverthorne and every four months without fail we take 10 days off. Otherwise we couldn’t keep up the pace that we do. Bruce loves the ocean, so we’ll head to places like Mexico, Hawaii or Sea Island, Ga.”
They both take Pilates and spend time on the treadmill. Scrabble is a favorite, as is visiting art galleries and antique stores. Their 14th-floor condo at the edge of Cheesman Park is decorated in Georgian antiques gathered from England and the United States.
“Bruce told our decorator that he wanted a 200-year-old English house in the sky, and that’s what he got,” Marcy said.
Looking back, Marcy says, “I have been so incredibly lucky it’s scary. There have been heartaches and tragedy, but in the end it’s like what Bruce always tells the graduates: The harder you work the luckier you get.”
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314, jdavidson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joannedavidson
2014 women
of distinction
In addition to Marcy Benson, the 2014 Women of Distinction that Girl Scouts of Colorado will honor at the Oct. 28 Thin Mint Dinner being held at the Sheraton Denver Downtown are:
Kelly Brough, president and chief executive officer of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce; Denise Maes, public policy director for the ACLU of Colorado; former Denver City Councilwoman Ramona Martinez; CBS4 reporter Gloria Neal; state personnel director Kathy Nesbitt; Comcast vice president Cindy Parsons; Maruca Salazar, executive director of the Museo de las Americas; Janice Sinden, chief of staff for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock; and Debbie Welle-Powell, a vice president with the SCL Health System.
The dinner, chaired by Leanna Clark and Patty Fontneau, also will feature a talk by pilot Amelia Rose Earhart from the Fly with Amelia Foundation.
Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 303-607-4833.
