Colorado lost a political legacy last week with the death of Phil Winn, the chairman of the state Republican Party from 1979 to 1981. He was 91.

In his memory, the family has asked for donations in his memory to The Bridge Project, the University of Denver’s graduate school for social work.

President Reagan appointed Winn to be federal housing commissioner for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1981.

From 1983 to 1984, Winn was a member of the Federal National Mortgage Advisory Council. In 1988, Reagan named Winn the ambassador of Switzerland.

Winn, a native of Connecticut, moved to Denver in 1956, where he worked for Witkin Homes until 1976, when he became chairman of the board of Philip D. Winn and Associates.

In 1971 he was the Colorado Home Builders Association’s Man of the Year,  and in 1981 he was the Colorado Association of Housing and Building’s Citizen of the Year, according to his obituary.

Dick Wadhams, a former Colorado GOP chair and the state media’s go-to political historian, noted Winn’s leadership “during the heady days of President Ronald Reagan being elected in 1980.

“He also was chairman during a very wild Republican primary for the U.S. Senate when Sen. Gary Hart was seeking reelection in 1980.”

Wadhams added,  “The primary had some of the most colorful characters you can imagine.”

This is how Wadhams summed up the waters of the GOP primary Winn was tasked with navigating in 1980: