John R. Stulp, Jr., 76, the state’s first and only water czar and a former commissioner of agriculture, died Monday night at the Prowers County Medical Center in Lamar, Colo.
John Stulp. Photo courtesy Colorado Agriculture Hall of Famestulp2
A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 2, at the First Baptist Church in Lamar. Contributions in Stulp’s honor should go to the church, 1600 South Main St., Lamar, 81052.
Stulp was commissioner of agriculture under Gov. Bill Ritter and served as the senior water policy adviser to Gov. John Hickenlooper from 2012 to 2018. Under his leadership, the state’s first water plan was produced in 2015.
He was appointed by five governors of different political parties to two cabinet positions and six state boards and commissions over 45 years of public service, according to the Colorado Agriculture Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 2024. He and his family opened their farm to trade teams, foreign farm tours, members of Congress, state legislators, nearly every state board and commission he served on, as well as grade schoolers and their teachers.
The Stulp family in 2024. Photo courtesy Colorado Agriculture Hall of Famestulp
Stulp was born on Dec. 27, 1948, in Yuma. He earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Colorado State University.
He later moved to Lamar, where 52 years ago he started Stulp Land and Livestock, growing dryland wheat and raising cattle as well as practicing veterinary medicine, a practice now run by one of his sons.
Before his state service, Stulp was elected commissioner in Prowers County, a rare feat for a Democrat.
He is survived by his wife, Jane, and their children, John, Janea, Jason, Jeremy and Jensen, and their spouses; 14 grandchildren, two sisters, and numerous other family members and friends.
Stulp’s death has “gutted” his many friends and colleagues.
STULP REMEMBERED
Hickenlooper, now Colorado’s junior senator, paid tribute to Stulp on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Thursday.
Minutes before heading to the Senate floor, Hickenlooper told Colorado Politics that his tribute to Stulp is only the second time he’s done that, but “he was that important to Colorado and to me.”
Stulp traveled with Hickenlooper through the Eastern Plains during the 2010 campaign. They visited a friend, and Stulp asked the farmer about this year’s crop. “We’ve been waiting for one good rainstorm for a record crop. Yesterday, finally, there were clouds and we got a good rain. We took a giant breath of relief. And then the rain turned to hail. We lost 60% of our crop.”
“You don’t farm because you want to, you do it because you have to. It’s in your blood,” Stulp said. “This is life.”
Hickenlooper noted Stulp’s “amazing work” on the state water plan, but noted that in the beginning, Stulp was more than skeptical.
In his remarks in the Senate, Hickenlooper explained how that plan came together.
“I was convinced that we needed a blueprint, a plan of some sort to address the gap between the state’s projected growth and its future water supply to make sure that we had the supply that could match our needs. I recruited John to serve as my top water policy adviser,” making it a cabinet-level position.
“It was clear to me that we would be hard pressed to find anyone that could do the work he did. John understood the agricultural community in Colorado better than almost anyone… He knew how hard it would be to map Colorado’s water supply to chart a plan to conserve water that we might need in the next 50 years.”
Hickenlooper said, Stulp’s skepticism came from concerns that “it might not be a smart idea for me politically, as a new governor, to take on an issue that had the potential to be so divisive. But he understood that we couldn’t let our rivers and farms at risk of running dry, and that we needed him. Colorado needed him. And he set aside his reservations and he rolled up his sleeves and he went to work.”
“John poured his heart and soul into that plan, and in the end, John accomplished what even he previously believed would not be possible,” Hickenlooper said. “He created a framework that’ll evolve as our state’s climate and demographics continue to evolve. More importantly, in the process, he created an ecosystem, a network of relationships that crossed geographic and political boundaries.”
Hickenlooper added that if he believed in “gradations of goodness, John and Jane Stulp would be at the very top, even with all the great contributions he made to our state. I think John’s goodness, the pureness and the deepness of his heart is what I miss the most.”
Former Republican Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling, said, “John Stulp was the poster child for public service and a true leader in the agriculture industry. He didn’t let partisan politics get in the way of protecting and defending rural America. I could always count on him to be open-minded and a listener, so that he could find ways to solve problems that faced our farmers and ranchers. His decades of leadership have proven to be beneficial to those involved in agriculture and the water arena. That leadership will be missed.”
Colorado farmers meet to discuss the 1977 Farm Strike with the state’s two U.S. senators and Vice President Walter Mondale in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in this undated photo from strategist Michael J. Stratton’s archives. From left: Baca County farmers Greg Schuler and Bud Bitner, U.S. Sen. Gary Hart, Vice President Walter Mondale, U.S. Sen. Floyd Haskell, Prowers County farmer and rancher John Stulp and Haskell aide Michael J. Stratton.Stupl-2
IMPACT ON THE STATE
Over his career, Stulp had a far bigger impact in Colorado than any legislator, said Don Brown, second commissioner of agriculture under Hickenlooper.
In a 2024 letter nominating Stulp for the Hall of Fame, Brown, a Republican, said Stulp could have stayed in that role, but Hickenlooper knew “Colorado had water issues” that had been neglected for too long.
Brown wrote, “Addressing those vast and complex issues, bringing agriculture and urban users to the same table, developing a viable state wide water plan, and most importantly of all addressing these issues with a minimum amount of discord would require a unique leader. One who possessed the skills of a diplomat, the patience of Job, and enough common sense to recognize when a situation, in a constant state of flux, would require either the use of the carrot or the stick.”
Former Gov. Bill Ritter appointed Stulp as commissioner of agriculture. “If we had an award for most universally loved cabinet member, it would be John Stulp,” Ritter told Colorado Politics.
Ritter first met Stulp during the 2006 campaign, when he was filming a TV commercial at a wind farm in southeast Colorado that belonged to one of Stulp’s sons. They got well acquainted during that 2006 campaign, and Ritter picked Stulp to lead the transition for the Department of Agriculture, including finding a commissioner. While there were three very good candidates, Ritter decided on Stulp.
“It was an absolute unmitigated joy to work with him; he had a great way about him,” Ritter said. “Polarization was not in his lexicon. He saw things that needed to be fixed and went about fixing them, not caring about who he needed to work with.”
Attorney James Eklund first met Stulp when Eklund was an assistant attorney general under Ritter. They met at an ag/water summit and gravitated to each other since Eklund spent time growing up in Holly, just north of Lamar.
“We were the two only rural Democrats at that conference. Right off the bat I got a really good vibe from him,” Eklund said.
Eklund was later named director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board under Hickenlooper, where he worked with Stulp on developing the state water plan. Stulp and Eklund had offices next door to each other, and we would finish each other’s sentences.”
Stulp “was an incredible statesman, not just for water in the West and for ag in the West. He had a professional expertise and experience that came from growing up in Yuma,” as well as his later life in Lamar, where he connected to ranchers, farmers and numerous agricultural organizations.
Eklund said the water plan was successful because Stulp was in that role of advising the governor and the cabinet. “We all knew we could go to him. He was a kind of Yoda, or maybe Obi-Wan Kenobi; if something needed deliberate thought or wisdom he was the first stop.”
Eklund said he continued to lean on Stulp after leaving state service. “He was humble, the kind of person I want to grow up to be,” Eklund said.
John Salazar served as Hickenlooper’s first commissioner of agriculture. “John was not only a good friend, I loved him like a brother,” Salazar told Colorado Politics. “He was a great mentor to me. He didn’t care about partisan politics; he cared about service to the people. I can honestly say he was a great example of public service to this state and this country.”
Salazar recounted a joke from their days in the cabinet. During President George W. Bush’s administration, he had named all these czars to fill cabinet positions. Stulp had been named the water czar in the Hickenlooper cabinet. One day, Stulp turned to the governor and said, “I’ll bet you that you have more czars than what Bush had. I’m your water czar, but I bet President Bush doesn’t have a Sal-a-zar.”
“I wish more people were like him, a good, solid, decent human being. As far as a voice for ag, John Stulp was it,” Salazar said.
Current Commissioner of Agriculture Kate Greenberg said Wednesday, “John always made sure I knew, and many others knew, that he was just a phone call or a short drive away. It’s hard to fathom Colorado without John Stulp. I am among the many who will miss John profoundly.”
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