Murray's Blog

Ed and Mary

May 13, 2011

Ed and Mary Osborne with Liam and Mallory Hybl

Once upon a time a young girl named from Hicksville met a boy from Hicksville she knew she was going to marry. They were both eleven years old. It would take another thousand years for him to be interested in girls; she would wait for him.

Many thousand years later when they were both about 15,they went to a dinner dance,and that was pretty much that.

Later, they went to college--he to West Point, she to William and Mary. They were married on September 23, 1961. They went off to live in Steeple Bumstead, England.

On weekdays, he flew over Scotland with nuclear weapons,while she tended their thatch cottage. On weekends, they went to London to see the theatre.

He went to the University of Michigan to get his doctorate in Engineering,so he could teach at the Air Force Academy. But first, he had to go to Vietnam. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, and a zillion other medals; he flew 213 missions, many of them dangerous.

Meanwhile, Mary was in Ann Arbor, working as a book keeper. When Ed got home, she gave him a check for $10,000--- his entire salary for the year, which she had saved while working for the Michigan Ladder Company.

They moved to Colorado Springs,where Ed taught at the Academy for many years before going to work with AMI industries. Mary became the first woman CPA in Colorado Springs history. She was an unstoppable woman, he was a high flying man. They both did very well for themselves, and then they began doing well for others.

They decided they would cultivate excellence, and cultivate their community--our community and our university.

First they gave $25,000 to THEATREWORKS to help buy us our Shakespeare tent, which will once again be home to our summer Shakespeare production this summer--The Merchant of Venice in Rock Ledge Ranch. Then they gave us much more. They helped lots of others too---Pikes Peak Hospice, Goodwill Industries, The Aging Center, the Chancellor's Fund, and just recently, with pride, Ed decided he would help UCCS Molecular Bio-Technology!

Oh, and they they decided to give UCCS the largest gift in the institution's history. Yesterday we celebrated the rededication of our new building, named the Osborne Center for Science and Engineering.

And last night we opened our new season with a new play, The Complete Life and Love of Ed and Mary Osborne (Slightly Reduced), starring Liam and Mallory Hybl. Cute couple,don't you think?

We have reason to believe Mr. and Mrs. Osborne enjoyed their play.

And we believe both Eds and both Marys deserve standing ovations. It's about the present, and it's about the future. Let us all rise, and thank our lucky stars.

Murray Ross

Murray Ross (1942–2017) was born in California to an English mother and an American father. He went east to study at Williams College where his love of Shakespeare blossomed. After graduate work in Rochester, New York; Berkeley, California; and London, England, he settled in Colorado Springs in 1975 to teach in the English Department at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He and his wife founded THEATREWORKS with a small group of fellow theatre lovers. He served as the artistic director of the organization for more the 40 years, and taught thousands of students in the University's theatre program, which he also founded. He directed, wrote, and adapted hundreds of plays at THEATREWORKS and across the country. In his own words, which appeared as the last line of his directing bio for years, he was married to the painter Elizabeth Ross, was the father of four splendid sons, and was regularly walked by his dog, Toby.