Clair B. Haverland
August 8, 1936 – June 28, 2022
Clair B. Haverland, age 85, of Lakewood, Colorado, passed away peacefully at home on June 28, 2022 with his family by his side.
Clair was born in 1936 outside of Broken Bow, Nebraska to Elsie Burke Haverland and Howard H. Haverland. After World War II the family moved to Placerville, Colorado and then to Montrose, Colorado where Clair attended Junior High and High School.
Clair attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where he met and married the former Kathryn (Kay) Bates. Clair and Kay made their home in Denver for many years before moving to Lakewood.
Clair worked for the Federal Bureau of Reclamation for 35 years where he specialized in materials testing and specialized coatings in the Corrosion and Plastics Technology group (formerly Materials Science Section.) Clair was a certified coatings inspector and a member of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) and Steel Structures Painting Council (SSPC.) At the time of his retirement, Clair was the only certified International Coatings Inspector at the Bureau of Reclamation. Clair was instrumental in developing a comprehensive construction inspection training program on coatings as well as quality control activities on irrigation drain tubing and geosynthetics for the Bureau.
After retirement Clair continued to share his expertise as a coatings inspector for the Steel Tank Institute for several years. Clair and Kay passed on their love of the outdoors to their three children and took many family camping and backpacking trips over the years. In their later years they enjoyed exploring the country and especially the desert southwest with their trailer, even caravanning into northern Mexico. Afterwards Clair and Kay built their dream home in Crested Butte, doing much of the work themselves. Clair was a true craftsman and always enjoyed building and fixing things.
In addition to his wife Kay and children Kirk (Anne), Marc (Cindy) and Kristin, Clair is survived by his grandchildren, Katherine Sawicki, Margaret Haverland, brother Willard and sister Lois Gill. He was preceded in passing by his parents, brothers Ed and Loren, sister Janet Howbert, son-in-law John Remenar and grandson Craig Sawicki.
A Celebration of Life for Clair will be scheduled at a later date.