TRACT #21 - CARL R. ROBERTS
Carl Runge Roberts was the 30th signer on the Petition to Incorporate the City of Federal Heights. On December 29, 1937, Carl purchased Tract #21 from George and Mae Dyke.
Carl was born on October 10, 1911 in Scottsbluff, Nebraska to Frederick Hugh and Clara (Runge) Roberts, the fourth of six children. He attended elementary school in Scottsbluff. Carl’s family moved to the Denver area in 1919 where he later attended East High School. He went on to St. John’s Military Academy in Salina, Kansas and Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Colorado State University) where he played football.
Carl married Neva Hansen on September 1, 1934. Neva was the fourth of five daughters born in 1913 in Nebraska to Danish immigrants, Jacob Frederick and Antoinette (Rasmussen) Hansen. Neva’s family moved to Hugo in eastern Colorado when she was young, and a few years later moved to Denver where Neva attended East High School.
When Carl purchased Tract #21 from George and Mae Dyke, a masonry concrete block home, built in 1932, was on the Tract. The structure still stands today. The couple's only child, Stephen, was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1939. The 1940 Federal Census lists Carl, Neva and five-month-old Stephen as residents on North Federal. Carl sold his property in Federal Heights on October 15, 1940, only months after incorporation.
Carl registered for the draft in 1940 and, according to his obituary, had a distinguished military career during World War II becoming a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Air Corp, serving in two theatres and was awarded the Bronze Star.
Carl’s father, Fredrick Hugo Roberts, was an early founder of the sugar beet industry in Colorado, serving as Director of Great Western Sugar. Carl followed in his father’s footsteps and entered the purchasing department in Great Western in 1940; he became the purchasing manager in 1950 following his military service. Carl wrote an article in The Sugar Press in 1959 outlining the cost of coal in sugar manufacturing.
Carl’s wife Neva died in 1953 at the age of 39. Carl died in September 1962, a few days shy of his 51st birthday.