John Marshall Sayre (Nov. 9, 1921-Oct. 19, 2010) was born in Boulder, Colorado to Henry and Lulu Sayre. He attended Boulder High School and the University of Colorado, graduating cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1943. On August 22, 1943, he married Jean, of Fort Morgan, Colorado, who was studying nursing at the University of Colorado. Days later, he entered World War II as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He attended midshipman school at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and then mine warfare school in Yorkstown, Virginia. He was wounded on a mine-sweeper in the South Pacific on October 1, 1944. Awarded a Purple Heart, he spent two years in a naval hospital in Oklahoma, ably attended by Jean, successfully fighting to save his severely damaged legs. Returning to Colorado, he received his J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1948. In 1951 he opened his own law practice in Boulder. That same year he began a six-year stint on the Boulder School Board, serving simultaneously, from 1952 to 1955, as Boulder City Attorney. He was a partner in the Boulder law firm of Ryan, Sayre, Martin, and Brotzman until 1966 when he accept the invitation of Davis, Graham & Stubbs to that firm. There, he was able to concentrate on his favorite branch of the law -- water. As General Council for the Colorado Municipal League from 1956 to 1964 he had first-hand knowledge of rapid post-war growth in the region. And as Boulder City Attorney, he was instrumental in getting Boulder to join the Northern Colorado Conservancy District after it became apparent that the city would need more water than Arapahoe Glacier could supply. At the same time he initiated the condemnation of land necessary for Boulder Reservoir. He was elected to the Board of the Northern Colorado Conservancy District in 1960, and served as its General Counsel from 1964 to 1987. In that capacity, he helped to create Colorado's first municipal subdistrict under the Water Conservancy District Act of 1937, and worked to secure the construction and financing of the subdistrict's Windy Gap Project, which provides Western slope water to Northern Colorado Conservancy District municipalities. From 1981 to 1986 he served on the Board of the National Water Resources Association, which is comprised of water users from 16 western states, and was the Association's president from 1985 to 1986. In 1989, Sayre was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science by then-President George Bush. In this position, he supervised the Bureau of Reclamation, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the Bureau of Mines. Upon his return from Washington, he rejoined Davis, Graham & Stubbs, where he served Of Counsel. In 2007, he moved to Bend, Oregon to be near his son. Information from obituary published in the Denver Post on October 22, 2010.
From the description of John Marshall Sayre papers, 1989-1992. (William A. Wise Law Library, University of Colorado Law School). WorldCat record id: 741330225
