Hearts inside and outside the state Capitol are broken this week over the death of Pat Teegarden, legislative liaison for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, who died Feb. 5 after a brief illness.

Both the state House and Senate paid tribute to Teegarden Monday, with a moment of silence in the House and Senate, and the chimes rung in the Senate in his honor.

One common refrain uttered by lawmakers and many others on social media who are devastated by his death is, “Be like Pat.”

House Minority Leader Hugh McKean, R-Loveland, said, with his voice breaking, that “there are rare people in this building who are true servants … Pat was a servant. He’s what you would wish in a civil servant, someone who knows his job but has humanity about him that takes it well beyond” the job. 

“He cared about others, not because of how they could advance his interests. He just cared about others. That’s who he was,” McKean said. 

In the Senate, Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, said Teegarden was “a giant, as pure a human as they make.”

No one who heard the news wasn’t completely devastated, he added.

Politics can be a strange place, self-serving world, Fenberg said, “but every once in a while you run across someone who is just here for the right reasons. That was Pat. It wasn’t about his ego or power. It was about helping people.”

Both Fenberg and Minority Leader Sen. Chris Holbert, R-Douglas County, said if the thousands of pleas for help that lawmakers received about problems at the labor department during the pandemic were resolved, it was because of Teegarden. The lawmakers reached out to him for help, even in the middle of the night, Fenberg said. 

“There are literally thousands of Coloradans who never met you, but you helped them in so many ways,” Fenberg said. “If there is a heaven, I’m sure we can agree, it just got a whole lot more fun. I hope every single day has a baseball game by day and a Grateful Dead concert by night.”

People are critical of government and bureaucrats, but Teegarden gave his life to public service and helping people, Holbert said.

“The Hickenlooper and Polis administrations have arguably lost their best,” he said.

Teegarden was the most dedicated state employee ever, said Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, whose voice broke with emotion.

“Heaven created a tremendous ally who made the world a better place,” Coram said. 

Sen. Faith Winter, D-Westminster, sometimes sobbed during her comments.

“He was the best person in this building,” noting that people got their unemployment benefits or stolen wages back because of Teegarden.

“What Pat gave this building was humor, and a smile, and the best energy … He was always there to greet you with solutions and no ego,” Winter said, adding all of his energy remains in this world. 

Teegarden’s fellow legislative liaisons from the state agencies joined together to watch the comments from the gallery of the House and Senate Monday.

A memorial is being planned to honor him at a later date in both the House and Senate.

Teegarden was born Sept. 1, 1953 in Arkansas but grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, where he graduated from high school. 

He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Colorado-Boulder, as well as his law degree. 

Teegarden is survived by his wife of 32 years, Chris Leding, and their daughters, Lian and Jade.

Hundreds have left messages of support for Teegarden’s wife, daughters and friends on CaringBridge, on Twitter and on Teegarden’s Facebook page. 

Wade Buchanan said he was honored to call Pat his friend for 40 years. Teegarden, he said, chose to be such a positive force in people’s lives.

“We all can make that choice,” Buchanan told Colorado Politics. 

Politics are so corrosive, Buchanan added, but Teegarden had firm values and believed in the system and the humanity on all sides of the aisle. 

Joe Barela, executive director of the labor department, who noted that Pat began his career with the agency in 2012 in the Office of Government Policy and Public Relations, said his long-standing relationships across state government and his ability to build coalition and bring people together quickly made him an invaluable member of the leadership team.

Barela said Pat had many friends at the department with whom he would talk Broncos, Rockies, politics, and history, and hold good-natured debates on the issues of the day. He was quickly promoted to director of policy and legislation, helping the agency realize policy and legislative successes while protecting it from “political whims that were against our core mission,” Barela said.

Prior to joining the department, Teegarden was an attorney with Patton Boggs from 1993 to 2004 and also worked in the administrations of Govs. Roy Romer and Bill Owens. From 1978 to 1983, he was with the legislative and policy staff for U.S. Rep. Tim Wirth, D-Boulder.

Teegarden was well-known in city and state political circles for more than 35 years, Barela wrote.

“He was a staunch believe in the sanctity of the democratic process, and his values led him to one of the most well-known, respected and loved civil servants within the state Capitol and in our community,” he said. 

Gov. Jared Polis issued his condolences on social media. 

Shelly Dill Keeny wrote on Teegarden’s Facebook page that “when I was a single mom without a job, Pat gave me one. At one of the worst times in my life he showed me kindness and believed in me to do something new. He gave me the gift one year of working every day beside him at the Colorado Capitol learning from his superb lobbying and negotiating at the Colorado Department of Labor.”

Keeny added: “Such a humble, honorable, intelligent, and kind man. The world has lost a great person. I have lost a previous boss and mentor but also a friend. I hope heaven includes a baseball game for you everyday.”

Teegarden was also a Civil War history buff, taking annual trips to historic Civil War sites. That interest provided fodder for his 2011 to 2013 columns for The Colorado Statesman.

Services are pending for the spring when the family hopes it will be safer for all of his friends and colleagues to gather.

Messages to his family and thousands of friends can be posted at Teegarden’s CaringBridge site.