Familiar Face – Geof Sparks

Many residents in the area are well acquainted with Geof Sparks due to his passions, the genuine way he connects with others in conversations, and also because he works at a very popular retail store in Niwot. Here are a few tidbits about Sparks which give us insight into the man behind the familiar face.

Left Hand Valley Courier (LHVC) – How have you become a familiar face in Niwot?

Geof Sparks (GS) - Most people know me as the evening face of Niwot Liquor where I've worked for over 16 years. And many folks have mentioned seeing me out practicing my Tai Chi and Wild Goose Chi Gong in the various parks around town in the mornings or around sunset.

Last December I put on a Star Party in Somerset where about 30 people showed up to look at the very rare conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn through my telescope. That was a special moment for me in our community.

LHVC -Tell us a bit about your background and family.

GS - I'm the oldest of four and we're all very close. I grew up in South Boulder, moving from Grinnell, Iowa, where I was born, when I was four years old. My father was a policeman in Grinnell and wanted to move "out west." So he got a job at the Boulder police department in 1962 and quickly moved up the ranks, becoming the head of their riot squad.

He was also the martial arts instructor for the police department for many years, which is where I got my own start in martial arts training with him and his teachers when I turned six. My mom and I have a great relationship. She lives in Boulder and I see her regularly. My father passed away in 1999.

LHVC - Where has life taken you and how did Niwot become home?

GS - I've lived all up and down the Front Range... Arvada, Englewood, Louisville, Heatherwood, Lyons, Berthoud, and Ft. Collins. I love Colorado.

Feeling wanderlust in my late 20s, I hit the road for the West Coast. I lived in and continued training with Chinese masters in L.A., Seattle, and especially Santa Fe, where I stayed for eight years. Before that I'd opened up my own Kung Fu school on Broadway in Boulder - The Chinese Tai Studio. That was an exceptionally strong period in my life.

I went through a divorce and came back to Colorado to my family to heal in 2001. I moved to Niwot in 2006. I was working for Tom at the liquor store, commuting first from Berthoud, then from Lyons - inching ever closer. I finally made the move to where I'm at now at the Countryside Condos with my two cats, Neon and Simba. My sister and her husband, Donita and Bruce Heurich, who live here in Niwot, bought the condo for me to caretake. I still consider my location to be the nicest spot in Niwot.

The greenbelt is my backdoor. I've thoroughly enjoyed my encounters with the deer and fawns that nest each year along the creek in my backyard, as well as the foxes, raccoons, owls, hawks, songbirds, and occasional bobcat, eagle or bear. I don't see myself ever moving again.

LHVC - What pursuits fill your life?

GS - My passions are Kung Fu, the I-Ching, history, paleoanthropology, and astronomy, in which I've catalogued over 2000 hours "at the glass" and driven over 75,000 miles to stargazing sites alone.

After high school at Fairview in Boulder, I started teaching martial arts full time in 1976 at Tai Kung Fu at the Cinderella City Mall in Englewood. We all lived and trained together, having nightly "River Classes" in the South Platte River south of Chatfield Dam practicing our drills and war games for 90 minutes after dark...even scrambling over shoreline ice in the winter. It was cold, yet those times forged my character more than anything else in my life, training to be a Kung Fu instructor with those guys who became my family, and taught me how to handle adversity.

LHVC - What other jobs have you had?

GS - While living in Santa Fe I got certified as a massage therapist in 1997at the New Mexico Academy of the Healing Arts. I worked for several years at Ten Thousand Waves, an elite spa in the mountains above Santa Fe, with an active staff at that time of 50 world-class therapists which expanded my resume of bodywork modalities greatly.

Before working at Niwot Liquor, I was the Transportation Manager (chauffeur) for The Academy, an upscale retirement home in Boulder, where I dressed in a suit and cap and drove around in a brand new English Taxi. That was fun.

I'm currently working on getting my eBook of Ba Gua Kung Fu, 'Swimming Dragons', which I finally finished last year, published and onto my website (https://tai-ba-gua.com/). But I'm still adding photos and videos. It's much more of a project than I realized.

LHVC - What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

GS - At 63 I can confirm unabashedly that I am a socially extroverted hermit...a loner. I prefer solitude and nature to noise. The stars are my church and I am a Taoist.

To suggest a Niwot or Gunbarrel person to profile in the Familiar Face column, write to [email protected]