Three to be inducted into Pueblo Hall of Fame
PUEBLO – Two prominent businesspeople and a trailblazing physician are the newest members of the Pueblo Hall of Fame.
Dr. Carl Bartecchi, Renee Carson and Andrew Trainor were announced Wednesday as the 2019 hall of fame inductees. They will be formally honored Feb. 16 at the 29th Pueblo Hall of Fame dinner put on by the Pueblo Community College Foundation.
Dr. Carl Bartecchi arrived in Pueblo in 1970 after completing his residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Bartecchi already was familiar with his new home: He was stationed at Fort Carson following his service as a flight surgeon in Vietnam in the mid-1960s.
While at Ford Hospital, Bartecchi recruited several other doctors to come to Pueblo and create what became the Southern Colorado Clinic. Throughout the years, many other physicians and medical specialists followed them.
Bartecchi was a key figure in the public health campaign that led to Pueblo becoming the first Colorado city to ban smoking in all public places.
With Sister Nancy Crafton, he established the health care clinic at Los Pobres Center in Avondale. The center serves migrant workers in Pueblo County.
Bartecchi served 10 years as the head of the clinical faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He also has worked in numerous volunteer and staff capacities at St. Mary-Corwin and Parkview medical centers.
In the 1990s, he started the Bach Mai Hospital Project to educate Vietnamese physicians. He returns to Vietnam twice a year, accompanied by physicians and physician teachers from CU, St. Anthony Hospital and National Jewish Health (both in Denver) and the Mayo Clinic. For his efforts, Bartecchi was awarded the Vietnamese Medal of Freedom and made an honorary professor at Hanoi Medical University.
“I (am) honored to be inducted into the Pueblo Hall of Fame, as each year it reminds the people of Pueblo of the large number of individuals and the many ways that they have given back to their community through their volunteer efforts,” Bartecchi said.
Bartecchi has been married to his wife, Kay, for 50 years. They have three children.
Renee (Rodriquez) Carson is a southern Colorado native who has made her home in Pueblo for more than 40 years. She is well known for her positive outlook, helpful nature and love of Pueblo.
After graduating from Colorado State University-Pueblo in 1988, Carson applied for a temporary position with Express Employment Professionals in Pueblo and ended up joining the company itself, eventually becoming a coordinator and manager. Today she is the majority owner and out of 800 Express locations in the U.S., the Pueblo office is one of only 20 that have been designated as training offices for the company.
For Carson, the key to her business success is an attitude of servitude. She and her staff strive to make job searches as pleasant as possible for their clients.
She noted that in the process of striving to surround herself with the smartest people, she also ended up surrounding herself with the most giving people – something that is a central component of her own life. Carson has volunteered with numerous organizations throughout the years, including the Latino and Greater Pueblo chambers of commerce, Goodwill, Pueblo Community College Foundation and Colorado State University-Pueblo Career Center advisory board.
“I never thought I would be part of this distinguished (hall of fame) list,” Carson said. “I hope that when my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren walk down the halls at PCC and see my picture on the wall, they’ll want to give back to this community that has given us so much.”
Carson and her husband, Eric, have five children and six grandchildren.
In the 15 years he has lived in Pueblo, Andrew Trainor has become one of the city’s biggest proponents.
He has been the regional president of Legacy Bank-Colorado since 2004. During his tenure, the institution has grown from one location to seven.
Trainor has served on the board of directors of the Pueblo Economic Development Corporation since 2014 and is its current president.
He also serves as an elder at Fellowship of the Rockies and has taken the lead role in the development of the Pueblo Del Sol subdivision, which will provide a new site for the church and more than 100 new homes for the Pueblo community.
Trainor is a committed supporter of higher education in Pueblo. Through his efforts, Legacy Bank provided a matching grant to start the Return to Earn scholarship program at Pueblo Community College; the program’s participants have a 94 percent graduation rate. He also serves on the board of the CSU-Pueblo Foundation and has provided financing and funding for multiple CSU-Pueblo projects.
Trainor’s commitment to community involvement stems from a belief that community is at the core of everything we do and that sharing gifts – whether time, talent or resources – is vital to individual and community growth.
“Being an inductee into the Pueblo Hall of Fame is such an honor,” said Trainor. “Personally and professionally, we try to live by three things – what’s right, what builds up others, and what represents us as a person of faith. To be honored for executing those types of principles is humbling.”
Trainor graduated from CSU-Pueblo and The Graduate School of Banking at Colorado. He began his banking career in 1981.
He and his wife, Donna, have three children and four grandchildren.
The Pueblo Hall of Fame was established in 1991 to recognize individuals whose efforts have contributed to the betterment of Pueblo. Any member of the Pueblo community may nominate an individual for inclusion.
The ceremony is one of the approved fundraising activities of the PCC Foundation, whose mission is to fund student scholarships or the college’s special needs that are not available through its general fund.
The induction will take place Feb. 16 in PCC’s Fortino Ballroom, 900 W. Orman Ave. The evening will begin at 5:30 p.m., with dinner at 7 and the ceremony at 8.
Tickets for the event are $100 per person. Sponsorship packages also are available. To RSVP, call 719-544-0677 or email OfficeMgr@puebloccfoundation.org.