Gary Lee Milligin

Gary Lee Milligin, “Papa Gary”, “Daddo”, passed away in Cortez, Colorado, on April 21st, 2025. A service will be held for him on May 10th at 4:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Cortez, 100 N Market St, Cortez, CO 81321. The family requests that those who wish to express sympathy consider donating to the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA) in Gary’s name at https://www.cmtausa.org/about/.

Gary was born in Bellflower, California, on March 7th, 1940, to Louis and Georgia Milligin. The family, including his younger sister, Betty Jean, moved back and forth between California and Colorado several times before he was six years old. He grew up in Durango, Colorado, and graduated from Durango High School in 1958.

Gary won a scholarship to Blair Business College in Colorado Springs. However, when spring came, he looked out the window and realized he didn’t want to spend his life inside. He quit school and went to work with his dad at their family-owned business, Basin Repair, in Ignacio, Colorado.

He married Sharon Rowe in 1961, and they moved to Rialto, California. Gary needed a job, and didn’t want to work as a mechanic, so he showed up daily at the loading dock for Carnation Dairy until they finally relented and hired him as a night loadout worker.

Sharon’s father was selling cemetery plots at the time, and met a man named “Buzz”, who worked as a banker and a beekeeper. Gary heard the stories that Buzz told and became fascinated. He began following Buzz around, working for free while he learned the ins and outs of the trade. He kept his night job as well, and he and Sharon would build bee equipment out on the patio of their California home while their two young children played in the yard. Eventually, Buzz and Gary quit their ‘real jobs’ and, in a huge leap of faith, became full-time beekeepers. Gary worked with the bees from then on, except for two different years when the honey crop failed and he found employment as a bricklayer’s assistant.

Gary and Sharon moved their family back and forth between Utah and California every six months, hauling the bees on semis to pollinate almonds and pursue a honey crop from clover, alfalfa, and oranges. They eventually settled in Durango, Colorado, in 1978. Gary would go on to become the largest honey producer in the Four Corners area, supplying honey to bakeries, natural food stores, farmers’ markets, and Honeyville. He was known as “The Honey Man” in both La Plata and Montezuma County, and at the peak, he was running around 3,000+ hives.

In 2005, they traded the crowded tourist area Durango had become for a calmer life in the farming community of Lewis, Colorado. Gary was a well-known figure in the community, sharing his knowledge and passion for his trade with anyone who would listen. He went to elementary school with his grandkids, proud to be their show-and-tell project. He hosted reporters and politicians at his warehouse, teaching the community about the decline of the American honeybee. He continued to work the local farmers’ markets in both Durango and Cortez. Gary would tell anecdotes, stories, and random bee facts to anyone who would listen, and his booth always had a crowd of listeners.

As Gary’s son Brad took over more of the heavy lifting of the bee business, he and his family created “The Bee Tree”. Gary spent countless hours in the wax room pouring candles, while other family members made salves and lotions for the markets. Each year, they held an annual honey sale, which became so popular that people would begin lining up on the county road hours before the sale officially opened. Gary was everywhere all at once, filling jars, answering questions, and shuttling people back and forth on his ‘horse’, the ATV he rode all over the property.

Gary was a man of deep and abiding faith. He was baptized in the cold rivers of the Pine River, and he was a deacon of his church. He cared deeply for those around him, and he touched many lives. Even to the end of his days, Gary was a beloved member of his community. At the nursing home, he was recognized by a passerby, who remembered him from the farmers’ market. They had just purchased some of Gary’s honey from a local store and mailed it to their family in Alaska.

Gary is preceded in death by his mother, Georgia Arlene Thompson Milligin; his father, Louis Harris Milligin; and his sisters, Sharma Jean Milligin and Betty Jean Votaw.

He leaves behind a crowd of people who love him dearly and fiercely; his wife, Sharon; his children, Brad (Kaari), Lynn (Jeff); his grandchildren, Jesse, Kaitlynn, Brianna (Lucas), Morgaine, and Aiden; his great-grandchildren, Bennett and Penelope; his niece, Michelle, and his grand-nieces Sharma Jean and Morgan Jane.

We miss you, Daddo.