Memorials, 0818 WYBJ, Vol. 41 No. 4. 58
| Position | Vol. 41 4 Pg. 58 |
GinaGuy
Gina Guy passed away at her Denver home on June 30, 2018, surrounded by her family and her dear companion, Terce Dines, after a 5-month illness. Gina was born and raised in Cheyenne in 1943, the only child of George and Lucille (nee Schopf) Guy. Gina received much from Wyoming and her parents who were well-known, as was Gina, for a love of entertaining and a good time with friends and family. Her father, George, was the first graduate of the University of Wyoming Law School to serve as the State's Attorney General and had a 30-year career in the military. After serving in WWII he and Lucille moved to Tokyo for a short time when he was appointed defense counsel for a Japanese General charged with war crimes. Japanese art and artifacts from that time decorated Gina's home and recalled her parents' openness to adventure, a trait Gina shared.
After graduating from the University of Wyoming, earning a MA in Spanish/Comparative Literature from the University of Colorado (1971), and teaching in Berthoud, CO she briefly joined the Army, Women's Army Corps. "It was unusual for someone from a small state, and I had no idea about diversity in the U.S. at that time. It was also much different for women, who were never subject to the draft, so all the women were volunteers. It was male-dominated." Undeterred by that experience, she elected to attend law school in Wyoming, where she was one of three women graduates in a class of 75 (1975). Gina began her practice of law in her father's firm, Guy, Williams, White & Argeris when the hurdles for a woman lawyer were many. When challenged by one of her partners that a woman couldn't both be a lawyer and a good cook, Gina prepared an elaborate Greek dinner party which included her homemade dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) and plenty of Ouzo. The dinner guests left happy converts to this multi-talented lawyer.
In 1982, Gina left Wyoming to begin decades of service as a lawyer for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She served for two years as Regional Solicitor, Pacific Northwest Region, in Portland, OR (1982-84) before coming to Denver as the Regional Solicitor, Rocky Mountain Region (1984-2002). Gina played a key role in developing a 1982 amendment to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) providing for habitat conservation plans to off-set harm to listed species from development by...
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