Local rancher and engineer Jerry McCaw died Aug. 28, 2015 at home of pancreatic cancer. He was 68.

McCaw served as a director on the Ignacio School Board, Basin Co-op, La Plata Electric Association, Habitat Partnerships, King Consolidated Ditch Company and the Southwest Basin Water Round Table.

McCaw was born in Durango and grew up working on his grandparents' dairy farm. He graduated from Ignacio High School in 1965 and married his high school sweetheart, Lora Hronich, in 1966. He graduated from Colorado State University in 1972 with a degree in civil engineering.

After college, he moved back to the family farm and worked for the Soil Conservation Service for 37 years as a civil engineer, helping many area farmers and ranchers learn conservation and irrigation methods.

A funeral will be at 10 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 4 at Pine River Valley Baptist Church with a burial at the Florida Cemetery.

"He was a real special one," remembered Allen McCaw, one of his two sons. "You come across certain unique individuals in your life, and he was one of them."

His father was always available to help another rancher solve an irrigation problem or anything else on a farm or ranch that needed fixing.

After high school, he worked for the U.S. Forest Service, planting trees on Molas Pass, then for the Soil Conservation Service as an engineering technician. His boss urged him to get an education, so Allen McCaw said the whole family moved to Ft. Collins and lived in a trailer while his dad studied at CSU.

Allen said his dad took him and his brother to the library so he could study. Allen couldn't find a restroom, so being a toddler, he relieved himself in an ashtray.

"You did a good job not peeing your pants," Allen remembered his dad told him.

"He did that throughout his life," McCaw said. If there was a problem or an issue, he tried to learn from it and move on.

His dad loved the outdoors and spending time there with his sons and four grandsons. He especially loved visiting Alaska every year to go fishing, and taking his family members with him.

He respected the farming and ranching community and wanted to promote education, so he served several terms on the school board.

"He handed us our high school diplomas," Allen remembers. "Education was always important." His dad also was a loving husband, and the McCaws would have celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary this year.

The family is requesting memorial donations be made to the La Plata-Archuleta Cattlemen's Association.