Leslie Dean Korthuis

August 25, 1937- October 31, 2015 Services  Sunday, November 8, 2015    2pm.  First Baptist Church in Golden 1805 Washington Ave. Golden, Colorado 80401. Les was born at the Physician’s Hospital on East Colfax, in Denver, Colorado. Les was the 3rd son born to Ben and Philamina Korthuis, after Robert and Donald.  Later their family was complete with Phil and then Darlene.  He is survived by all of his siblings, his four children, 10 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.  His wife, Ruth, of 56+ years preceded him to glory.  Les left us with many good memories and was still full of adventure until the end. Les loved his friends and enjoyed helping them out if he could.  He has helped several with remodeling or repairs to their homes.  He loved to bike ride with family and friends. His father Ben worked for the Burlington Railroad as a “Car man.”  They were able to live up in Phippsburg, Colorado for a while.  Otherwise, Les lived most of his life in Golden, CO.  Les remembered going with his Dad to work at the depot in Denver, helping him do his carpentry work there, and meeting the engineers and train staff. He remembered tours of diesel locomotives and the Denver Zephyr. Les’ family lived at 6th and Indiana Street for all of his school years.  He attended Mitchell Elementary School and then went on to Golden High school, which is today the Golden Mountaineering Club building.  He would walk a half mile to the Landon Hills/ Indiana Street Trolley station, then ride back and forth to school everyday.  The Trolley was replaced in 1950 by a bus system. Their family attended the Pleasant View Community Church at McIntyre Street and Hwy 40.  The church had bought an old hearse to use as their church bus. Les always made sure he looked around to see if anyone was looking whenever he would get in. Les loved to build things out of wood.  He would go to cabinet shops and ask for their scrap ends, so he could build trucks.  He entered some of these in hobby shows and won some ribbons. During High School, Les worked at Wide Acres Ranch irrigating, mowing hay and putting it up.  He was on the Golden High School Football, Basketball and track teams. He also played saxophone in the band.   He really enjoyed his shop classes. He was active in the Pioneers for Christ at school.  He and his brothers were in a group of boys that helped Paul Eiselstein build Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je in Pine Colorado.   They didn’t contribute money but a lot of labor to building the camp, so the camp named a cabin after them, “Pleasant View” cabin. He and his family were involved then with Calvary Baptist Church on Old Golden Road.  The men would work at nights after work, building the sanctuary of the church.  Les had worked 2 weeks straight and said he couldn’t work the Saturday because he needed to clean house because his family was returning from vacation.  The ladies said they would clean if Les would work.  They were able to close it all in so they could hold services inside that weekend, and Grandma was overjoyed to return to a clean house! While at Calvary Baptist Church, Les found his soul mate, Ruth DeNeui.  She was the sister of his very close friend, Doug. After he graduated from High School, he worked as an apprentice carpenter for a year and a half before joining the Air Force.  After boot camp he was assigned to jet mechanic training in Amarillo, Texas, where he arranged for Ruth to come down to visit with his parents.  There he asked her to marry him.  They were married in Golden, August 31, 1957.  Then they went to live in Spokane Washington.  Les worked at Fairchild AFB.  While in Spokane their first two children were born to them. They returned to Golden upon Les’ honorable discharge.  The next two children were born to them in Golden. He returned to carpentry and built many homes, churches, camps, motels, fast food stores and filling stations, and worked on the White Fence Farm.  Les built 4 of the houses where he and his family lived. Les and Ruth loved being parents.  They spent time taking their family on car, train and plane trips, usually camping along the way.  Les taught his family to love being out of doors.  He made sure each child had a bike and took them on rides. They took their family to nearly all of the continental states.  They went to Florida shortly after Disney World opened, took a trip to the original 13 colonies in 1976 for the bicentennial, took their kids to Europe and Africa, Alaska and Hawaii.  Les and Ruth traveled many places, even Siberia, Iceland, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Les was always finding new things to create.   Once, before backpacks were a norm, Steve wanted a backpack for his Boys Brigade hike, Les and Steve made him a pack from a cardboard box, carpet strips and duck tape. Les loved to find new places to take people.  Most were very interesting.  He had a card highlighting the interesting points in Colorado Les was very active in church and the community. Les’ wife Ruth passed away in March of 2014. At the end, Les was surrounded by his 4 children and son-in-law, singing songs and reading verses from the Bible.   They were singing one of his favorite songs  (I’d Rather Have Jesus) when Jesus called him Home.