Colin Harper left this world peacefully at home in Colorado Springs on August 7, 2018, which was also the 14th anniversary of his marriage to Caroline.

Colin’s impressive life journey spanned several continents, beginning with his home birth in 1959 in West Kilbride Ayrshire, Scotland, an idyllic little village on the coast.   Colin was welcomed by his parents, Margaret and Andrew Harper and four older siblings: May, Rita, Andrew, and Robert. The family saying was that they saved all the good looks for the youngest, noting that Colin was a ”bonny baby” who grew to be a handsome man.  Colin enjoyed a childhood of freedom, loving the outdoors.

Colin’s inner strength, strong work ethic, and ability to adapt was demonstrated from a young age.  The family moved several times during Colin’s secondary school years: from West Kilbride to the Shetland Isles to the Isle of Arran and back again to West Kilbride. When Colin was 13 his eldest sister, May, died leaving behind two young daughters, who needed care and attention from his mother.  Colin started working in early primary school, delivering milk before school, and never stopped working after that.  He worked in a wide variety of jobs: laboring on an oil pipeline, as a crane operator, in a men’s tailor shop, as a cab driver, as a double-decker bus driver in London, in a butcher shop, as a painter, in insurance, as a financial advisor, and as a property manager.

Colin first married at 20, welcoming daughter Leigh a year later and two years after that, a son named Paul.  When Leigh was born, his wife sent him to register the birth and Colin accidentally logged the baby’s name as “Lee” — the boy’s spelling!  Later, in his second marriage when his second daughter was born, his wife asked him to announce the birth by email to friends and family and he announced that the new baby’s middle name was Ainsley, when Ashley had been the decided middle name!  In the end, Leigh was able to use the proper spelling for her name and it was decided that fate had intervened and that Ainsley was actually the better middle name after all, so that stuck, but Colin was still forbidden from registering anything or announcing any news after that!

In his early 40’s, Colin was hired for a job in Kuwait.  The night before he was to depart, the company asked if he could go to Japan instead, because a position had come open that they needed to fill. Ever adaptable and up for adventure, Colin flew to Tokyo, took on life providing financial services to expatriates and ended up being one of the very few foreign men in Japan to meet and marry an American woman, rather than a Japanese woman!  Shortly after marrying Caroline,   Colin reported that something was missing in their tiny Tokyo home and that the missing something was a baby!  Wee Morgan was born nearly two years later.

Far from his boyhood home on the shores of West Kilbride, Colin discovered another idlyllic coastal seaside village in Palm Cove, Queensland, Australia, which was a relatively quick plane ride almost due south of Tokyo.   Spring breaks and Christmases were spent there, socializing with locals, fishing from the neighborhood wharf where Colin caught all kinds of creatures including jellyfish and shark, and it was there he bought what came to be his trademark – his leather Australian bush hat.  Colin was later known all over Colorado Springs as the Scottish guy in the Australian hat!

Colin was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 and, even though he was not optimistic about it, he adopted the Japanese spirit of “shoganai” and faced this new challenge with quiet courage as he underwent his first surgery and one-month hospitalization at the National Cancer Center in Tokyo.  A week after surgery, the Great Tohoku Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown hit Japan.  From his hospital room, Colin saw the skyscrapers around him sway “like blades of grass”.  Colin learned how to navigate the Japanese medical system and handled the surgeries, chemotherapy, and the 3-hour train travel back and forth to the hospital for treatment without a single complaint. His acceptance of his disease and his ability to cope was so remarkable that even his Japanese oncologist was in awe of him and told him so.

After many years in Japan, the family moved to Colorado Springs where Colin renovated and managed several properties.  A consummate jack of all trades, he relished the challenge of learning new construction skills, referring to YouTube videos and other internet resources for proper procedures and techniques.  Colin was an innovative thinker who always found a way to accomplish even seemingly impossible tasks.   He singlehandedly transformed the unfinished basement of the family home into a lovely family room, guestroom and full bath, all fully wired and plumbed.

Colin’s passion for the outdoors continued from childhood throughout his life.  He loved fly fishing, and fly tying and simply being in and looking at nature. He delighted in seeing the bear, deer, coyote, bobcats, rabbits, wild turkeys, blue jays and other birds around the Colorado Springs neighborhood.  He enjoyed watching extreme reality shows, such as “Deadliest Catch,” perhaps due to his own drive to persist and succeed.   Above all, Colin was proud of his Scottish Heritage.  He struck a handsome pose in his kilt, proudly wearing the Buchanan Clan tartan.

Colin was predeceased by his parents, Andrew and Margaret, and his sister, May. In addition to his wife Caroline and their daughter, Morgan, Colin is survived by son, Paul, of Scotland and daughter, Leigh, of England along with two granddaughters, Imogen and Evelyn and his siblings: sister Rita of Canada, and brothers Andrew and Robert of Scotland and many other friends and family around the world.

The world is a better place for Colin having been here and he will be greatly missed.