Meet Cheryl Pennington

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cheryl Pennington a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Cheryl, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I began teaching swimming @ age 12 in my Uncles Motel swimming pool. That continued into lifeguarding and working with kids through High School. After graduating from High School I attended college and got a degree in physical education. I began my first teaching position in Kansas City @ an inner city ghetto school in the 60’s and 7o’s. I then traveled to Colorado where I have lived since 1971. I went to CU and got my masters degree as a teaching assistant. I then began my 30 year career in teaching high school physical education, establishing programs for girl’s sports, and coaching sports. After retiring from high school teaching, I taught skiing @ Eldora Ski area. I taught in the special needs program. My students included blind students, autistic students, and many other types of special needs students.

As a teacher, I discovered my purpose. I loved the kids, coaching, and teaching. I feel that I learned much more that they did.
I am so proud of helping to establish girls sports in Colorado.

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Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I was a physical eduation teacher for 30 years. Now I have a hand coloring black and white photos business. I had a dark room @ home & developed film and printed my black and white photos. When I retired from teaching, I was given as a retirement present, a class in hand coloring black and white photos. We used the same oil paints that were used in the 1880’s. I hand colored my own photos. I was very fortunate to meet the family of Fred Clatworthy, who was a famous photographer. I scanned & printed nearly 400 historic B and W negatives for the family and they gave me their permission to hand color many of his historic photos. The photos were mainly of Estes Park, Rocky Mtn. National Park, and some from his travels to Grand Canyon, California etc.
I love the historic aspect of hand coloring. Clatworthy opened a photography store and gallery in Estes Park, Colorado in the early 1900’s. I live in Allenspark, a community near Estes. The historic photos that I hand colored became very popular. I have been doing this for nearly 22 years. I have learned so much history about the area where I live. When I give demos people are very interested in the process of hand coloring. It is truly history in action. Clatworthy used to pay hand colorists to color his photos.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. I really feel that my ability to communicate with students was the most impactful part of my journey. Whether I was teaching high schoolers physical education, special needs students to ski, artists to hand color. or mentoring swimming officials I always loved doing it.
2. I feel that my love of history and photography also added much to my learning to hand color. I always do it manually not computer managed with photo shop etc. This is because I love to do the historic process.
3. My love to be active and exercise has been very impactful. Coaching sports (gymnastics, tennis, track, swimming) has
added to my knowledge of a healthy lifestyle. I ran many races, climbed mountains, and did some triathlons.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

The person who has been the most helpful to me was Mary Estes. Mary was a professor I had in my undergraduate college program. She became a lifelong friend. She passed away a few years ago. She listened to my problems and taught me to ski. She was instrumental in helping me get my teaching assistantship @ the University of Colorado.

Image Credits

Cheryl Pennington -hand colorist of historic photo Fred Clatworthy historic photographer