Sue Anschutz grew up in Russell, Kansas, the daughter of Frederick and Marian Pfister Anschutz. Farming was part of her family's history, as her great-grandfather, Christian Anschutz, was one of the German farmers brought to Russia by Catherine the Great to increase the yield in the Volga River valley. Anschutz eventually left Russia for America and started a farm in Kansas. Frederick Anschutz began buying up ranches in the 1950s and tapping them for oil reserves, netting him his fortune. As a girl, Sue accompanied her father on his inspections of his oil fields, and learned to handle horses, brand cattle, and bale hay from the ranch hands. She has one younger brother, Philip, a billionaire philanthropist who heads the Anschutz Foundation.
Career
Like her father and brother, she is a graduate of the University of Kansas, attaining her bachelor's degree in education in 1955. She began working as a teacher, returning each summer to spend time with her family at their ranch. In 1987 she acquired ownership of the Crystal River Ranch in Roaring Fork Valley, which her father had purchased in 1966. Under her direction, the ranch's holdings grew from one bull and 33 cows to 1,700 head of cattle by 2008. In keeping with her drive for conservationism, she installed a self-propelled water system that does not use electricity or fossil fuels. Anschutz-Rodgers is a strong proponent of conservationism and the preservation of the heritage of the American West. She spearheaded the effort to implement conservation easements in Colorado, a legal concept that shields ranchland from future real estate development.
Philanthropy
When her father endowed the Anschutz Family Foundation in 1982, she became its executive director, president, and trustee., she continues to serve as chair and president. From the initial endowment of $4.5 million, the foundation's assets increased to $55.5 million as of 2016, and it has awarded more than 9,000 grants worth $52.6 million in the area of human services. In the early 1990s Anschutz-Rodgers created Colorado Rural Philanthropy Days to encourage other philanthropists to fund nonprofits in the rural sector. She also heads the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Fund, which funds projects promoting women's self-sufficiency. In 2003, she and her brother Philip donated $2 million toward a new exhibition gallery at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. In 2013 she endowed a $2 million chair in retinal diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In 2018, she made an additional gift to the Department of Ophthalmology and University of Colorado Hospital which led to the designation of the program as the UCHealth Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center.
In 1997, Anschutz-Rodgers was honored as one of the Denver Women of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Colorado. She was the recipient of the Citizen of the West award of the National Western Stock Show in 2006, becoming the first woman to earn that honor. In 2012, she received the George E. Cranmer Award from Colorado Open Lands for her contributions to land preservation. Also in 2012, the Denver Rescue Mission honored her as one of the four "Women Who've Changed the Heart of the City". In 2013, she received the Russell Thayer Tutt Award from the El Pomar Foundation for "exceptional leadership in the nonprofit sector". In 2008, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. In 2017, she was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame.
Personal life
Anschutz-Rodgers is divorced and has three daughters.
