Fort Collins Mayor serves last term

Fort Collins remains Hutchinson’s one true home

By Courtney Riley
JTC 320

Meet the Mayor:
- Grew up in Fort Collins
- Majored in physical science at CSU
- Retired from the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant colonel
- Was sworn into Air Force by his father, and recently swore in his own son
- Is an avid reader
- Loves working outside: woodworking, fishing, hunting


Before Doug Hutchinson became the mayor of Fort Collins, the last political position he held was on student council at Lincoln Jr. High in 1955.

His passion and concern for Fort Collins inspired him to run for mayor 50 years later without any experience serving on city council.

Fort Collins is his true home, he said, despite the fact that he has lived in California, Nebraska, Alabama, Germany, Washington D.C. and Colorado Springs.

He lived in Fort Collins from age 4 when there were only two stoplights and 2,000 people living in the city, until he graduated from Colorado State University in 1965.

While attending CSU he participated in the ROTC Air Force program, was a member of the fraternity Phi Delta Theta and majored in physical science with a specialization in chemistry.

“I got a great education at CSU,” he said. “I was very lucky.”

He also married his wife Cathy at the end his junior year. The couple had known each other practically their whole lives.

They still have a photograph of the two of them standing next to each other on their first day of kindergarten. Cathy Hutchinson asked him to a dance in the seventh grade, which sparked the beginning of a long-lasting relationship.

They dated their junior year of high school and remained friends until the end of their freshman year of college when they rekindled the flame.

He used to take her “Jeeping” in the mountains and read her German poetry. He also “pinned” her–– a ritual of giving your fraternity’s pin to a young woman you love.

“He’s a romantic,” she said. “He has a fantastic sense of humor that just sends me in gales of laughter.”

Upon graduation, Doug Hutchinson entered the U.S. Air Force and was in active duty for 23 years.

He and his wife moved to an Air Force base in California for his first assignment to work on advanced intelligence plans and systems.

Their first child was born here, and nine minutes after the birth, a missile was launched.
“Doug said, ‘Well, that really was an earth-shaking experience,’” Cathy laughed.

He also got a master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California while living in the state.

The Hutchinsons continued to move throughout the country, even venturing to Germany, and had two more children along the way.

He retired from active duty as a lieutenant colonel in 1989 and worked in defense intelligence for 10 more years in Colorado Springs, where he created intelligence capabilities for space operations.

“I loved it because I was creating something and building something,” he said.

He retired from the military in 1999, and the family returned to their roots in Fort Collins.

They moved into Cathy’s parents’ old house that they had bought in 1944 in Old Town east of the old Fort Collins High School.

That same year he learned that only 30 percent of the city voted in the city council elections, despite the fact that it was a mail-in ballot.

He said he noticed the council was not working effectively and did not represent the people accurately.

He wrote some letters to the editor of the Fort Collins Coloradoan, and the newspaper ended up asking him to write a community column in 2001 that would run two times a month and focus on issues in Fort Collins.

“I went to every city council meeting,” he said. “And I went from being an engaged citizen to a concerned citizen.”

Nine months before the 2005 elections for mayor and city council, Hutchinson had gone through 14 people he thought would be good candidates for mayor.

In November 2004, when the 14th person said no to Hutchinson’s suggestion for running for mayor, he decided to run himself.

“I couldn’t find anyone good, so I decided to (run),” he said. “I figured my life experiences could help.”

He won the election, and he is now serving his third and final term, completing his six-year position as mayor in April.

He said he feels he has achieved his two main goals as mayor throughout the past six years: creating a council that works together and working on budget procedures and economic health.

“Doug is the only person I know who can cut down a tree and tell you exactly when and where it’s going to land,” Cathy said. “He doesn’t do anything half-way.”

His campaign slogan, “Together We Can,” summed up his philosophy of being mayor.

“We can do anything if we work together,” he said. “I’m a strong believer in partnerships and collaborations.”

He wanted to have a diverse council with the same philosophy, consisting of seven members. He achieved that goal.

“It took a while for some council members to realize things were going to be different,” he said. “But once they did, we made compromises until everyone agreed on something.”

Hutchinson also created the first economic advisor position to work for the city manager. This job consists of making budget plans, including the first economic action plan.

The mayor’s economic vision is that a healthy economy reflects the value of our unique community in a changing world.

He said there are still more issues that Fort Collins is facing, and he hopes his successor can fix those.

Council member Wade Troxell worked with Hutchinson on issues, such as clean energy, even before he was on the city council.

He has now been a councilman for four years, and he said Hutchinson will certainly be missed.

“I’m thankful for the leadership we’ve had throughout the years,” he said. “He’ll definitely go down as another great mayor in that lineage.”

Hutchinson plans to spend his time off with his three children and six grandchildren who also reside in Fort Collins, but he said he will miss his role as mayor.

“It’s been a great adventure,” he said.