Anna Petteys

Anna Petteys
Philanthropist, Journalist
1892 - 1970
Inducted 2008

Anna served on the State Board of Education, funded numerous scholarships, and raised funds for myriad community projects. The recipients of the Anna C. Petteys Scholarship for women of northeastern Colorado are proudly carrying on her legacy.

Anna Petteys, known as the “Catalyst for the Plains," arrived in Brush, Colorado from Grinnell College in Iowa in 1914. The shy Iowa farm girl settled in as the wife of a banker and mother of four. She expanded her world in 1943, when she earned a master’s degree at Colorado State College of Education (now the University of Northern Colorado) and traveled the world. Journalism allowed her to share her discoveries about the needs of children in the world and her own community. The Petteys family owned the High Plains Daily Journal and the Sterling Advocate, and Anna used that platform to write columns and editorials to bring fresh ideas to northeastern Colorado.

“I’m curious, and I like to know people who make news.” — Anna G. Petteys