A Former Mayor Takes an Unexpected Path to a Gay-Rights Charity

I didn’t follow a blueprint, but instead my career path built on itself. It wasn’t that I was forward-thinking, saying, “I want to do this.” I was enabled to do more because of the experiences that I had.

I got my bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of North Dakota. I took a lot of classes in broadcast

MARY LOU MAKEPEACE Age: 66 First professional job: Writer and editor, U.S. Corps of Engineers, St. Paul. Current job: Executive director, Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado, Colorado Springs

journalism, but I quickly found out that it was not exactly a good career field for women at that time.

I then thought, well, I’ll turn to writing, and that’s when I had the opportunity to take this job as a writer and editor of erosion and flood-control studies at the Army Corps of Engineers. And then I got married. My husband was in the Air Force, and I became a military dependent. So then it became, where were we living, and what could I do with my education?

He was stationed at Grand Forks Air Force Base, in North Dakota, where I was going to school. We met through friends. I worked in Germany when we were stationed there. I worked for the University of Maryland as a registrar for their overseas programs.

And then we came back to the United States and we were at Fortuna Air Force Base, in North Dakota. I was a librarian there. Then we went to Czechoslovakia, and I worked as an assistant to the defense attaché. I guess that was probably when I became aware of being an American and the freedoms that Americans enjoy. I came to realize what a special place in the world we occupy.

My husband and I decided to get divorced, so I came back to the United States — and that’s when I moved to Colorado. We had lived in Colorado briefly when we were first married. I love the mountains. I really didn’t see myself returning to North Dakota, and I knew this place and loved it.

I started working at the El Paso County department of social services as a caseworker. A colleague of mine had enrolled in a community-leadership program, called Leadership Pikes Peak. I was interested in that, so the next year I got myself involved in the program.

I would say that was really a turning point in my career, because it made me aware of what our community consisted of. That’s where I really got exposed to nonprofit organizations and the work they do.

At the same time I was doing that yearlong program, I was getting my master’s degree in public administration at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, going to school at night. When I came back to the agency after being in graduate school, they didn’t really have any promotion opportunities for me, so that’s when I became executive director of the Community Council of the Pikes Peak Region, a nonprofit that no longer exists.

We did some interesting things, such as Project COPE, a program through the utilities company, which is run by the Colorado Springs city government.

People could make a contribution to help elderly and poor people with their utility bills. The city felt like it was taking a risk giving it to a nonprofit to administer, and so I was really called upon to help the City Council understand where that money was going. I would go once a month to a City Council meeting and talk about the kinds of cases we were helping.

That was really what piqued my interest in City Council. In October 1985, a member who was elected in April stepped down. I went ahead and applied for that vacancy, and there were 15 or 16 people who applied and we each got like 10 minutes to interview, and the Council selected me. I think I got the appointment because I had built trust with the Council through my work with that nonprofit.

I stayed on Council for 12 years and then was mayor for two terms after that. But my knowledge of the nonprofit world was very, very helpful as a council member. Most elected officials don’t have a full appreciation of how much of the community is served by nonprofits — and, in the absence of nonprofits, what a big plate local government would have if they had to step in and meet those needs.

One time we were talking about some funding — I had made the comment that we had a nonprofit infrastructure in our community that was every bit as important as the transportation infrastructure. I don’t know who listened to it except for the nonprofit executive directors, but they were very grateful that somebody recognized the important role that they play.

I was term-limited in 2003. Quite frankly, I was worried about who would hire an ex-mayor, a bossy woman who was used to being in charge. That’s not exactly your ideal employee. I worked for Leadership Pikes Peak, and then I was asked to apply for this job as executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Fund, a project of the Gill Foundation. Part of that was due to some of the actions that I took as mayor.

Colorado Springs has a reputation that stems back to 1992, when the amendment to the Colorado Constitution passed that restricted what cities could do in terms of offering equal benefits, equal opportunity, equal protection for gay and lesbian citizens. That passed in Colorado but was ultimately overturned — but it did earn Colorado the reputation of “hate state.” People who initiated Amendment 2 were from Colorado Springs, and so we were colored even more strongly.

During the time that I was the mayor, I was asked to do some things for the gay and lesbian community — simple things, like recognizing the gay-pride celebration in the park.

During the last part of my term as mayor, the Council approved domestic-partner health benefits. There was an election that followed shortly thereafter, and that issue became one of the hot buttons in the campaign. The new Council came in and overturned what we had done. But it had elevated me as someone who cared about equal rights for all people. I think that’s why I was asked to apply for the job.

I did not know much about foundations, or about gay and lesbian issues, but I did know the community and considered myself fairly savvy in terms of politics. It’s been a real education. I’m coming up now to my third anniversary, and we are celebrating our 10th anniversary as the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado. So here I am. I love my job, and I think we do wonderful work.

Just because you haven’t done something before doesn’t mean you can’t do it. When I took my first nonprofit job with the community council, I took a pay cut. I had a friend who said, “Don’t look at it as a pay cut, look at it as a postgraduate internship because you’ll be learning so much.” That’s how I approached a lot of things that I’ve been involved in.

I certainly never finished college thinking “I’m going to be the executive director of a foundation.” On the other hand, I think I make a much better executive director because of all those experiences that I have.

And I’m not done yet. I am reminded that Jimmy Carter’s mother was 68 when she joined the Peace Corps.