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At Home in Telluride
AMBASSADOR RICHARD HOLBROOKE

A hike to Hope Lake, late lunch at Fat Alley and kicking back on the deck with the Sunday New York Times is a regular summer day in Telluride for Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.

To Holbrooke, 63, this place is home, even though at this stage, he’s only able to spend about 30 days a year here. “That’s my life ambition,” he says. “To be able to spend 60 to 90 days a year in Telluride.” Quite a compliment to this little town considering what sorts of accomplishments Holbrooke has attained in his life.

As former ambassador to Germany under the Clinton Administration, Holbrooke’s involvement in politics is vast, beginning with participation in pacification programs in the Mekong Delta during Vietnam and later, as staff assistant to U.S. Ambassadors Maxwell Taylor and Henry Cabot Lodge. Other notables include being an advisor on Vietnam to President Johnson, junior member of the American Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks on Vietnam, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs during the Carter Administration (during which the U.S. established full diplomatic relations with China), and Peace Corps director in Morocco. Perhaps, Holbrooke’s foremost career triumph was during the Clinton Administration when he successfully negotiated the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the Bosnian War. At that time, he was assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian Affairs and Chief U.S. Envoy to former Yugoslavia.

Holbrooke is an eloquent, sound and cogent voice; a vital influence in global politics. His passionate outlook toward appropriate action and involvement, with regard to peacekeeping strategies, is inspirational. In a piece he recently wrote for the Washington Post, titled How did “Never Again” Become Just Words, Holbrooke commented on the decade since the Rwandan genocide. With regard to the devastating tragedy, where the U.S. and United Nations failed to intervene and 800,000 people were slaughtered in three months, he said “There will be other Bosnias and Rwandas and Afghanistans—as well as, regrettably, terrorism—in our lives. How we respond to them will determine not only the fate of millions, but our own future as Americans and the kind of world we live in. We must learn from the errors that allowed Rwanda to take place.”

In addition to government positions, Holbrooke has worked for numerous financial firms; was managing editor of the quarterly magazine Foreign Policy; a contributing editor of Newsweek magazine; and a successful consultant. He was also Clinton’s nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize multiple times, authored To End a War and co-authored Counsel to the President, is president and CEO of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, and is on numerous boards and committees, including the Telluride Foundation.

Yes, getting back to the San Juan Mountains, Holbrooke is utterly passionate about this community. When here, he does what most people do...enjoys himself, treasures the beauty of the area and tries to involve himself with what’s going on in town.
“Sometimes I feel torn,” he says. “When I come to Telluride, it’s my chance to get away from my other home in New York and relax, but on the other hand, this is also my home and it’s a small community. I like to be involved.”

Holbrooke has spoken here on numerous occasions, particularly during the MountainFilm Festival, which he attends annually. He also held a fundraiser for the Democratic Party while in town over Christmas last year—part of his commitment to John Kerry’s presidential campaign. Holbrooke aims to do whatever he can to help Senator Kerry win the election because as far as he’s concerned, he’s the best man for the job.

As for local politics, Holbrooke wholeheartedly believes the Valley Floor should be preserved. “I’m an absolutist when it comes to the Valley Floor,” says Holbrooke. “It’s a treasure for Telluride, as well as for the state and the nation. It should most certainly be preserved and kept intact or it will change the character of the town forever. I’m not for compromises on this one. It’s a magical moment when you hit that field, driving in from Montrose or the Telluride airport. I don’t understand why people would want to compromise that.”

Holbrooke first came to Telluride in 1988 with friends, Dick Ebersol and Susan St. James. “They said to me, you have got to see this place,” he recalls. “Up until that time, we skied in Sun Valley and Vail primarily, but after that trip I decided I had to make Telluride work as a lifestyle.”

Holbrooke’s first residence in town was a condo at Boomerang Lodge. He’s since owned a few homes here, but now, remarried and with a growing family of grandchildren, has settled into a place up on the sunnyside. Holbrooke has two sons, David and Anthony, who lived in Telluride at one time. David and his wife, Sarah, married in Telluride and have three children. In the mid-1990s, Holbrooke married Kati Marton, who has children of her own, Christopher and Elizabeth.

Bright, motivated and estimable personalities certainly attract each other in this family. As remarkable as Holbrooke is, Marton has her own anthology of venerable accomplishments. She is a human rights activist, writer and reporter having contributed to ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio, Atlantic Monthly, The Times of London and The New Republic. Marton has written five books, including The New York Times bestseller, Hidden Power, and directed her own film, Armed and Innocent, which premiered at the 2003 MountainFilm Festival. David and Sarah Holbrooke also had a film at the 2003 MountainFilm Festival, Live From Shiva’s Dance Floor, with another at the 2004 festival, Time for a New God.
Other than MountainFilm, the Holbrooke clan gets together in Telluride every Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year’s. Marton, of Hungarian descent, makes her annual goulash feast on New Year’s—a casual affair replete with heated ping-pong tourney in the basement—and the family hits the slopes just about every day.

“The Plunge, Bushwacker, Dynamo, Little Rose, Richard skis it all,” says local Mike Shimkonis, a dear friend of Holbrooke’s. “He likes to ski fast and definitely has his share of spectacular wipeouts. One-to-two good yard sales a trip, with a few bumps and bruises—not to his ego though. He just gets right back out there.”

Marton and Holbrooke also come out in September for a fall foliage fix. Shimkonis, their trusted hiking partner, takes them up Ajax Peak and the East Fork Trail. Bear Creek is another favorite. “This place is his sanctuary,” says Shimkonis. “He’s just your everyday Joe…sort of…when he’s in town.” Likewise, Marton is a regular bluegrass enthusiast as she and Christopher attend the festival each year.

While Holbrooke has friends all over the world, friends here are all local Telluride-folk. “Mike and Jennifer Shimkonis, Brian and Hilaree O’Neill, Paul and Lois Major, Frank and Bea Reichel, ski buddies Gene Arzonetti and Jack D’Angelo. Our life in Telluride is with the people who live here,” says Holbrooke. “We have a whole world out here.”

To Holbrooke and Marton, whose vibrant lifestyles carry them all over the globe, Telluride is in a class all its own. Time here is neither business nor vacation, according to Holbrooke. It’s time at home.

“With all he’s done for Africa, AIDS and everything else, Richard is one of the most well-connected people on earth and in such an admirable way,” says Shimkonis. “It’s nice that he’s so connected here.”