Wellington booster, Andy Mair, dies at 95

Globe-trotting diplomat Andy Mair, one of Wellington's proudest sons and biggest boosters, died April 25 at age 95.

Memorial services are set for 11 a.m. at First United Methodist Church, 1005 Stover St. in Fort Collins. Burial will follow at Grandview Cemetery.

Mair always credited the superior education he received in Wellington schools for giving him the foundation for an adventurous career that carried him across the globe in the service of six presidents.

Yet through it all, Mair remained part of the place where he was raised. "I'm just a sugar beet farmer from Wellington," he was fond of proclaiming.

Indeed he was. A photo on the cover of last year's inaugural edition of the Colorado Farm Bureau's magazine captures a strapping Mair at the wheel of a tractor towing an overflowing wagon of beets. That close connection with agriculture was an enduring theme in his life.

Based on his success building the Farm Bureau locally and statewide, he was appointed to the Department of Agriculture's Denver office of conservation and stabilization.

In 1969, he was appointed deputy assistant secretary for international affairs and commodity programs, working to improve worldwide food supplies and distribution.

Then in 1973, Mair became coordinator of the Food for Peace program, responsible for distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in food to developing nations.

In between, he worked for the State Department with postings in Italy, Afghanistan and Turkey.

Mair was preceded in death by his wife of 57 years, Norma. They had two daughters, Carolyn Cady and Peggy Klinkerman.

Dan MacArthur interviewed Mair for a profile published in August 2008, "Wellington High School meant the world to Mair."