Jeanne & Wilton Jaffee

Jeanne Jaffee came to Aspen in 1959 and remembers single lane dirt roads and a town where everyone knew and spoke to everyone. She and her husband, Wilton Jaffee, worked diligently to raise money to build our hospital, but that was just the beginning for this hardworking duo.

“Wilton, and many others, did a lot towards raising money to build the [Aspen Valley] hospital,” Jeanne recalls. “It was fun to do it all. There was so much to do, we were very busy!

Some of the “all” that Jeanne did was remarkable, to say the least. She was the first woman to chair the Music Associates of Aspen and is now a Life Trustee. Other organizations she supported through the years are Anderson Ranch, serving at one time as President and currently as a Life Trustee, the Given Institute (Fellow) and the Aspen Art Museum. To sum up her life of volunteerism she remark[ed] “I do whatever I can do to help.”

Wilton “Wink” Jaffee was one of the more colorful and contentious characters in Aspen’s recent political history.

As the owner of the W/J Ranch on McLain Flats Road near Woody Creek, Jaffee was well-known for the lively community rodeos he held at the ranch. He was also well-known for the cavalier attitude he took toward government regulations, his support of employee housing on his ranch and for his caustic criticism of Pitkin County elected officials and staff.

—The Aspen Valley Medical Foundation and the Aspen Times, Photo: Aspen Historical Society