Dick Wolfe received an award last week that best sums up his relationship with Colorado’s water community, friend.

Kevin Rein, the state water engineer, presented the Friend of the South Platte award to his predecessor, Dick Wolfe, who retired from the job in June after 10 years in the top job and 24 with the agency.

“I have volumes to say about Dick,” said Rein, who served as Wolfe’s deputy director of the Colorado Division of Water Resources for nine years, said at the South Platte Forum in Loveland.

“When it comes to Dick being a friend of the South Platte, I think you all recognize, and know better than I do, that he’s been a friend of the South Platte not just for the last 20-something years that he’s been with Division of Water Resources. He’s been a friend of the South Platte forever.

“Dick would always remind us of his farm-boy roots in Fort Lupton. As a friend of the South Platte, that goes back his entire life.”

The annual two-day forum brought together experts, water users and policymakers.

Wolfe managed a staff of about 260 and a budget of about $25 million. The division oversees the distribution of water under the law, as well as making sure dams are safe and regulating wells, as well as managing stream flows and five interstate water-sharing compacts,

Wolfe never strayed far from home. He has his graduate and undergraduate degrees in agricultural engineering from Colorado State University.

Rein called his former boss a “great problem-solver” who worked well with others and never forgot where he came from.

“He had a saying he used to say around the office.” Rein told the forum luncheon. “‘You can take the boy off the farm but you can’t take the farm off the boy.’ We heard that a lot, and I think that says a lot about Dick.”

Wolfe said of his four-month retirement: “I highly recommend it.”

He is spending time with his three sons and their families, including seven grandchildren.

He noted the bumpersticker on his vehicle in the parking lot, which stated, “I’m retired. Go around me.”

He was touched by the award from the water users, he said.

“I think one of the greatest honors you can receive in life is to be considered someone’s friend,” Wolfe said.