Gary was born in Jet, Oklahoma, in 1941, and before moving to his beloved mountains of Colorado, he enjoyed life on his Grampa Looney’s farm. The family moved to Basalt, Colorado, on May 14, 1954. He was a graduate of Basalt High School, class of 1959.

He worked in Aspen with Clyde Clymer and learned welding and fabrication skills from Clymer. Gary formed the Highland Welding Company soon after and did the steel fabrication for many condominiums and buildings in Snowmass Village and Aspen including the Concept 600 building. He owned and operated Cherokee Construction and Custom Steel out of Grand Junction, where he built the snow grooming equipment for the Aspen Ski Corp. He later worked in the shop at the base of Fanny Hill for the Aspen Skiing Company. During this time he also owned and managed the DeHaven ranch (now the Bigelow Ranch) up the Fryingpan. In 1989 the Looneys bought and operated the Glenwood Carwash until 1998. After a year’s rest Gary went to work for Amerigas in Carbondale. He enjoyed tooling around the valley delivering propane until he retired in 2009.

The Looneys built their home on Ruedi Creek in the early 1970s, and it was Gary’s favorite place on the planet. Gary enjoyed hiking, camping, old trucks, firewood gathering and organizing.

Gary is survived by his wife MaraLynn, his children Amanda Mansfield, Daniel Looney and Erin Anderson (Tom), his grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

Gary was an avid reader and enjoyed visiting the library. It would be “keen” to visit your local library in his honor. A Memorial Service will be held at the Diamond J Ranch on Saturday, May 28th at 2pm.