Park Hill Character: ‘I Just Make Jewelry And Trouble’
By Jack Farrar, Special to the GPHN
Helen Wolcott: Artist, Activist, Energizer Bunny
Every Thursday from noon to 6 p.m. volunteers at the Park Hill Community Bookstore undertake what appears to be a Sisyphean task – plowing through hundreds of books (donated or brought in by members for credits), setting aside books that are either already in stock or unlikely to sell (donated to ARC and the Salvation Army), then carefully arranging “keepers” into genres, to be priced later by the book inventory team.
The woman who has managed this operation for decades is Helen Wolcott, 86 years old, a tad south of five feet tall, who does a pretty good imitation of the Energizer bunny. “She’s amazing,” says a colleague at the store. “Always in motion. Organized and systematic.”
Wolcott’s connection to the bookstore dates back to the early seventies. “Back then, it was really a meeting place for liberated women,” she says. “Support groups of all kinds met here. I remember coming in one night during off-hours and there were wiccans sitting on the floor, in a circle, doing their thing.”
Most individuals of Wolcott’s vintage would consider six hours per week of volunteering at a bookstore sufficient community involvement, but those who know her know better. She has volunteered for Planned Parenthood for 35 years. She is a charter member of the Denver chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality and remains involved with a range of civil rights issues.
For more than 40 years she has produced a twice-a-year arts and crafts fair in her Park Hill home, at which she sells her jewelry. And to ward off boredom, she travels the globe, along with husband Oliver, age 87, through EarthWatch, which sponsors scientific field trips and archeological digs.
What you do with your life
Wolcott believes that what you do with your life should reflect your values, and those values should not be compromised, whether you’re talking about a civil rights action or choosing participants in an art show.
“Helen is stubborn, in a good way,” says longtime friend Ann Lederer, who sells hand-dyed silk at Wolcott’s art shows. “And she wants it done her way. No loose ends. We had to fight like heck to persuade her to cut the weekend sale down to Saturday and Sunday and to drop Friday. She is in control, right down to the food you bring.”
Wolcott was brought up in Kansas City in a progressive, upper-middle income Jewish family. Her father was a prominent attorney who once argued successfully before the Supreme Court that foundations should be allowed to change their missions under certain conditions, a landmark ruling.
“That affected institutions like [Denver’s] Clayton College [for Boys],” Wolcott says, “which used to accept only white Christian boys.”
Her roots in the civil rights movement run deep. In addition to helping launch the Congress of Racial Equality in Denver, Wolcott has participated in a number of political actions.
“When we moved to Park Hill we discovered that the Boy Scout troops were segregated. So, I and a friend, Alice Reynolds, formed our own diversified Cub Scout troop.”
She was also a tester for CORE, posing as a homebuyer to document discriminatory “steering” by unscrupulous real estate agents. Her Wolcott Family Foundation helped finance the production of Rebels Remembered, a three-DVD history of the Civil Rights Movement in Denver in the 1960s and 1970s. One of her fondest memories was meeting CORE founder and civil rights icon James Farmer.
She is a fierce defender of a woman’s right to choose, and has long volunteered to escort women into Planned Parenthood facilities, past sometimes aggressive protesters. She has endured obscene remarks and threats, sometimes wearing a bulletproof vest. Pro-Life militants have demonstrated at her home art shows. “It actually backfired and boosted attendance,” she says.
From Brazil to Borneo
Helen and Oliver met at Swarthmore College, near Philadelphia, attracted to each other by the same left-wing beliefs and world views. But they have contrasting personalities. He is quiet and laid-back. She seems to be in perpetual motion.
Helen does her own thing politically, but occasionally the couple works together. For example, they hosted Hopi and Navajo Native Americans who had been relocated under a special program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“The basic idea was sound,” Oliver says. “It was designed to get Native Americans the chance to succeed in an urban environment. But the support systems weren’t always there.”
The Wolcotts’ membership in EarthWatch has included trips to 38 countries, including South Africa, Brazil, Borneo, Australia, Nepal, India and Costa Rica. They’ve taken measurements in the crater of a volcano, measuring geothermal energy. They’ve tracked sloth bears, riding elephants. They’ve captured caimen and transported them to laboratories for further study.
Never a nine-to-fiver
As you might imagine, the Wolcotts have strong opinions about the current president. A psychiatrist, Oliver is prohibited by professional ethics from offering a specific diagnosis, but he is not reluctant to suggest that Trump is “narcissistic, a tradition that dates back to the Roman Empire. He sees everything in relation to himself.”
They were both Hillary Clinton supporters, but agree that her campaign was flawed. “I think we will have a female president,” says Helen, “but I think it will be someone who has independent credentials. Hillary was weighed down partly by Bill’s baggage.”
The Wolcotts have five children, born in five different states. They have eight grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
To what does Helen owe her longevity and good health? “I work out at the Jewish Community Center three times a week, I do water aerobics and I go to Weight Watchers.”
She’s never had a nine-to-five job. “I just make jewelry and trouble. I guess you could say my occupation is activism.”
Jack Farrar is a longtime Park Hill resident and board member of the Park Hill Community Bookstore, at 23rd and Dexter. This is an installment of a regular feature about people who help make the neighborhood great. Past Park Hill Character profiles can be read online at greaterparkhill.org.