South Routt lost a cherished community member when David John Nelson — best known as “Swede” — passed away May 2 at the age of 82.

Known for his good-natured, even-keeled temperament and willingness to help any one in need, Nelson was “a person you wanted to be friends with,” described a longtime acquaintance.

Granddaughter Mattie Rossi — representing the fifth generation of Nelson’s South Routt County roots — described her grandfather as “smiling and cheerful, and a joy to be around.”

---

---

Nelson was born to Carl and Marguerite Nelson in 1942 in the Green Ridge homestead cabin built by his grandfather around the turn of the 20th century, just east of Phippsburg.

Behind his blue-sky eyes and ever-present smile, Nelson also had a stubborn, ornery and mischievous side.

---

---

But “the sheer joy he brought to the table” always shone through, described his daughter Janet Rossi.

Nelson loved racing snowmobiles, beach vacations and playing Blackjack.

He also had a deep love for the Flat Tops, spending much of his life roaming around and living next to the scenic wilderness area.

Above all, Nelson was devoted to his family. He is survived by his sister, Mary Lovato, daughters Janet Rossi (Mitch) and Charlene Regan, and grandchildren Matthew Regan and Mattie and Carl Rossi.

Nelson met his former wife Marilyn working on a ranch in Wyoming before they moved back to Yampa to raise their family. 

“His daughters and grandkids were everything to him,” said friend Roger Bratton. “I don’t think he hardly ever missed any of their sporting events.”

Janet Rossi talked to her father every morning on the phone up until his last days and Nelson was staying with his daughter, Charlene, in Mesquite, Nevada when he passed away.

Regan described Nelson as “Super Dad.” “He worked seven days a week but still had time to go to all my sports, build soap box derby cars, work on snowmobiles for us kids to ride and spend time fishing, riding, hunting, and hiking in the Flat Tops.”

Janet Rossi remembers receiving an unacceptable third place in their initial soap box derby as young girls, after which their dad made sure they always took home first place.

She also remembers racing down Yampa’s backroads at 75 mph on snowmobiles as her dad tested whatever machines he was tinkering on.

Mattie Rossi has many fond memories fishing with her grandfather and cousins at Allen Basin Reservoir and Crosho Lake. “He always provided Pepsi and night-crawlers,” she said.

Nelson’s family moved from Green Ridge to Yampa around 1950, where Nelson spent his teenage years fixing up old cars and acting as protector to his younger sisters.

Friends tell stories about Nelson racing on a snowmobile with his leg sticking straight out in a cast, the time he hopped on a train to California, and a Gore Pass search for a nudist camp.

Nelson’s mother, Marguerite, and her sister Evelyn, were known as impressively tough women who walked miles from their Green Ridge house to church every Sunday, and regularly went together on walking expeditions from Yampa to Trapper’s Lake and back, occasionally at night under a full moon.

Nelson spent his career working as a ranch hand, snowplow driver, and for many years on the dragline crew at Edna Coal Mine and as a truck driver hauling logs.

“I don’t know anyone as tough as him,” said Bratton.

Nelson could often be found in his mini-excavator, ready for any odd job or to help a neighbor in need.

“He had a way of figuring things out,” said friend and South Routt rancher Jim Rossi. “And he would give the shirt off his back to help somebody else. . . He did a lot of work for other people just for two words — ‘thank you’ — that meant a lot for him.”

Janet Rossi described her dad as a “small engine mechanical genius.”

“People weren’t afraid to ask him for help,” she said. “He never expected anything.”

Nelson’s sister, Mary Lovato, remembers when Nelson was 18 and working as a snowplow driver for the Colorado Department of Transportation. A couple ran off the road and got stuck, and Nelson brought them home.

“He was always rescuing people,” she said. “He was always very good at that.”

Nelson took care of his parents as they aged, and his sister June when she fell ill. He instilled the value of hard work into his kids and grandkids, always offering them jobs stripping poles, fixing fences and painting decks.

Nelson was “like a father to me,” Bratton said. “He was a kind man. He’d do anything for you. And he was always fun to be around.”

A fixture at South Routt bars in his later years, Nelson always insisted on buying the first round.

“He didn’t go to drink — he went to socialize and learn about others and share stories,” described Regan.

When he did have a beer, it was always a Coors Banquet.

“He wanted to engage with people,” agreed Janet Rossi. “He was interested in everyone and their walk of life.”

Whether chatting with city-dwelling passers-through, grizzled ranchers, or dreadlocked hippies — Nelson made friends with everyone.

“Everyone just took to Swede,” Bratton said.

As he aged with health challenges, Nelson never complained, Bratton said. “He always wanted to know how you were doing — but he never complained about himself.”

Nelson loved to laugh and took great pleasure in playing practical jokes.

Knowing his granddaughter was afraid of snakes, Nelson always included a dead snake somewhere with her birthday presents.

When she went to college, she received a dead snake in the mail inside her birthday card. “He was always such a teaser,”  Mattie Rossi said.

Asked what she most valued about her grandfather and the legacy he left, Mattie said it was, “his ability to be present with the people who are around you. . . And enjoying what you have and not taking it for granted. He seemed so content and pleasured by the simplicities of life. He was never looking for something else beyond what he had.”

A celebration of life for Nelson is planned for July 12, with details to be announced at a later date.