Hamlet “Chips” Barry, manager of Denver Water for 19 years, is the water department’s longest-serving manager. He died in a tragic accident on his farm on the Big Island of Hawaii, Sunday May 2, 2010.
Before becoming the manager of Denver Water, Barry was in Gov. Roy Romer’s cabinet as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. Barry’s experience with the Department of Natural Resources gave Barry a broad outlook on both environmental and water issues, while his early legal career spent on resources and land use issues gave him an appreciation for how people on the West Slope feel about Denver’s claims to supplies from the Colorado River basin.
Barry, a Denver native, grew up in the Montclair section of east Denver and attended Denver Public Schools. He graduated from George Washington High School in 1962.
In 1966, he graduated cum laude from Yale College, where he majored in American Studies and was a three-year player on the tennis team.
In 1969, he earned a law degree from Columbia University Law School.
After law school, he worked as a VISTA volunteer lawyer in rural Alaska, was a law clerk to Judge Robert McWilliams on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver and a legal services lawyer in Micronesia.
In 1975, he returned to Colorado from the Marshall Islands, resuming a career in western water and natural resources matters.
Since returning to Colorado, Barry has been heavily involved in community and civic activities. Barry worked on the first statewide water plan under Gov. Dick Lamm and served as the director of the Mined Land Reclamation Division, Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources, and Acting Executive Director of DNR.
At Denver Water, he oversaw the agreement with the Colorado River Water Conservation District to build Wolford Mountain Reservoir near Kremmling. Denver Water financed the district’s reservoir in return for 40 percent of the yield, which was a radical departure from prior Denver Water/West Slope relations.
During his tenure at Denver Water, the utility built a recycled water distribution system, invested millions in improvements at its treatment facilities, monitored recovery from several devastating wildfires in Denver Water’s watershed and led the scramble to recover from one of the worst droughts in the city’s history. The 1997 Integrated Resource Plan, which details Denver Water’s long-term water supply plan, was adopted under Barry. He also oversaw a cooperative agreement with customer districts.
Internally, Chips transitioned Denver Water from a hierarchical, insular organization to a more modern governmental entity that seeks the best talent from inside and outside and encourages interdivisional cooperation. Chips’ open-door policy made him accessible to employees throughout the organization.
Externally, he set about to change Denver Water’s relationships with its neighbors on the East and West Slope and beyond Colorado. Denver Water’s relations with distributor customers in the metro area have been completely revamped, and the entities are now partners rather than opposing litigants. Through Chips’ personal efforts, Denver Water also dramatically improved relationships with many entities on the West Slope. Chips was the initiator and founder of the Western Urban Water Coalition, which represents all the major water utilities in the semi-arid west and has become a respected voice in Washington on such issues as endangered species and federal regulation of water.