Born into wealth as an heir to the Champion Spark Plug fortune, George Stranahan chose to make his mark in physics rather than automotive parts. By age 40, he was teaching at Michigan State University and had founded the Aspen Center for Physics, a Colorado gathering spot for many of the world’s top physicists.
Then Dr. Stranahan moved on. He became a cattle rancher, investor in Aspen-area businesses and founder of the Flying Dog Brewery. He also helped establish and manage the Woody Creek Tavern near Aspen and published an outdoors magazine.
He was perhaps most famous as a friend of the writer Hunter S. Thompson, who died in 2005. They shared a passion for Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, explosives and shocking the bourgeoisie. “We talked a lot, drank a lot and dynamited a lot,” Mr. Stranahan told the Denver Post in 2008. “If you’re a rancher, you have access to dynamite.”
