His contributions to the community were recognized by former Gov. John Hickenlooper who named March 1, 2018, as Ed Zink Day.<\/p>\n
Zink is survived by his wife, Patti Zink, and his three children, Brian Zink, Tim Zink and Kristi Zink.<\/p>\n
The Durango community recognized Zink\u2019s contribution in 2005 when he was named Citizen of the Year. During that ceremony, he shared his love for Durango with the crowd:<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in one of the best places in the world. The only smart thing I did was stay here. I couldn\u2019t imagine how my life could be better. \u2026 All I\u2019ve done is have crazy ideas. Ideas like people who have perfectly good cars ride their bikes to Silverton.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zink founded the Iron Horse with Tom Mayer, one of the brothers on which the race was based. Mayer, a cyclist, famously bet in 1971 he could get to Silverton on his bike faster than his brother, Jim, who worked on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad line from Durango to Silverton. Zink later helped organize international events, such as the Olympics in Atlanta and Nagano, Japan.<\/p>\n He had the vision and drive to think big and make things happen, especially when it came to planning trails and events, said Trails 2000 Executive Director Mary Monroe Brown.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did that his whole life and inspired other people to walk in his footsteps, to help carry the torch he lit for Durango,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Director of the Iron Horse Gaige Sippy said that while Zink had an extensive mountain bicycling resume, he wasn\u2019t a typical cyclist.<\/p>\n \u201cEd wasn\u2019t a shaved-leg type of cyclist,\u201d Sippy said.<\/p>\n Sippy also recalled Zink as a hard worker throughout his life and attentive listener.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was confident he was going to learn something from everybody he spoke to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Zink got into business after his father, John Zink, purchased Crawley Sporting Goods in 1968.<\/p>\n John Zink asked Ed, who was 20 at the time, if he would like to run the shop and Ed accepted the offer, according to \u201cWaterfall Ranch: The History and People of a Special Place in the Animas Valley,\u201d a book about the Zinks\u2019 family ranch.<\/p>\n Crawley Sporting Goods became the Outdoorsman, a general sporting goods store. Then in 1987, Ed Zink bought the Fort Collins-based Mountain Bike Specialists. The business won best Best Mountain Bike Shop in the U.S. in 2016 at the Interbike industry trade show in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n On the shop\u2019s website, Zink and all the staff answered questions about biking. To the question, \u201cWhat is your favorite bike to ride?\u201d Zink wrote: \u201cThe next one I am on.\u201d To the question: \u201cFavorite trail in Durango?\u201d he answered: \u201cThe last trail I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Zink was also well-known as the owner of Waterfall Ranch, which celebrated its 100-year anniversary under the ownership of the Zinks in 2017.<\/p>\n Ed Zink\u2019s grandfather, John J. Zink, and his family moved from Nebraska to Southwest Colorado in 1910.<\/p>\n Zink was the only one of his five siblings never to move away from the ranch and took on much of the responsibilities of running the ranch in the late-1980s and early 1990s.<\/p>\n Zink and his wife, Patti, have restored 50 acres of the 150-acre ranch to wetlands and were recently approved to restore another 15 acres. The couple started researching wetlands banking in 2006 because they wanted to purchase neighboring property that had been part of their family\u2019s original ranch but couldn\u2019t afford to just raise hay on it. Wetlands banking allowed the family to restore property and then \u201csell\u201d those acres to agencies or developers who are building on wetlands in other areas, according to Waterfall Ranch.<\/p>\n Ed also served on numerous boards, including the Animas Consolidated Ditch Co., USA Cycling, Trails 2000, San Juan Mountain Association, The Durango Herald<\/em>\u2019s board of directors and many others.<\/p>\n \u201cEd, like his father, John, was comfortable in both rural and city environments and a leader in each,\u201d said Richard G. Ballantine, chairman of Ballantine Communications Inc., which owns the Herald<\/em>. \u201cWe asked Ed to join the Herald<\/em>\u2019s board of directors because the Ballantine family admired his imagination and creative energy and his perceptive insights into events and people. He delivered all that. There was also no fuzziness with Ed. He believed in setting goals and then accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.<\/p>\n Contributions in memory of Zink can be made to Trails 2000 and the Mercy Health Foundation.<\/p>\n