Randall “Randy” Maharry, a retired dermatologist, Vietnam-era flight surgeon, and longtime Estes Park volunteer, was honored Saturday afternoon with a proclamation from Gov. Jared Polis declaring May 16, 2026, as “Dr. Randall Maharry Day” in recognition of his decades of civic service to the Estes Valley.
The surprise presentation was made during a gathering of family, friends and fellow volunteers, many of whom worked alongside Maharry and his late wife, Janet, to build the Village Thrift Shop into one of the community’s most successful charitable enterprises.
The nonprofit thrift store, founded in 2016, has distributed approximately $1.7 million to local nonprofits and scholarships while providing affordable secondhand goods to residents and visitors. Operated entirely by 55 volunteers, the organization logged more than 90,000 hours of service over its 10-year history.
“Volunteerism is not a soft concept,” said Meridith Marshall, director of the Rural Opportunity Office in the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade, who presented the proclamation on behalf of the governor. “It is the connective tissue that holds rural Colorado together.”
Marshall said volunteer service fills gaps government cannot address and creates the trust and relationships that allow communities to thrive.
“It is, in a very real sense, economic development,” she said. “And no one embodies that truth more fully than the man we are honoring today.”
From Iowa farm country to Colorado mountain town
Maharry grew up in Clearfield, Iowa, and was inspired to pursue medicine by his uncle, who was a physician.
He earned his medical degree from the University of Iowa in 1968 and served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970. He returned to the University of Iowa to complete a dermatology residency in 1975.
During his career as a dermatologist in Des Moines, Maharry held numerous leadership positions, including president of the Polk County Medical Society, the Broadlawns Hospital medical staff, and the Medical Library Club of Des Moines.
Continuing to serve in retirement
Maharry’s guiding life philosophy has been to live by the golden rule. After moving to Estes Park, Maharry practiced medicine for approximately 15 years at Salud Family Health Centers, providing care to many residents who otherwise lacked access to healthcare.
His volunteer resume also includes work with the League of Women Voters of Estes Park, where he chaired the program committee, and participation in local recycling initiatives.
But his most visible contribution may be the Village Thrift Shop.
Maharry, his wife, and Susie and Michael Sisk launched the nonprofit with a simple idea: create a thrift store run by volunteers that would recycle donated goods and channel proceeds back into the community.
The concept flourished.
Over the past decade, the shop has awarded grants to local charities, helped fund scholarships, and become a quiet but powerful philanthropic force in the Estes Valley.
“Our success is due to a wonderful core of volunteers”
Accepting the proclamation, Maharry said he felt humbled by the recognition.
“I feel very awkward when I am surrounded by those people who are wonderful volunteers in the community and who have and are doing so much more than I,” Maharry said.
He credited his parents for teaching him the importance of helping others and paid tribute to Janet, his late wife and co-founder of the thrift shop, who died in 2018. The couple had been married for 56 years.
“In regards to the Village Thrift Shop, I want to acknowledge my late wife Janet,” he said. “She was there when we had this idea.”
Maharry said the thrift shop’s success was built by a dedicated board of directors and dozens of volunteers who devoted countless hours before, during and after store operations.
“Our success is really due to a wonderful core of volunteers,” he said.
He then invited former board members and volunteers in attendance to stand and be recognized, and he thanked Judy Brannon for organizing the event.
Mayor Hall: Volunteerism is the heart of a community
Estes Park Mayor Gary Hall said volunteerism provides the spirit that animates both government and business.
“If corporations and governments are the muscle that make things happen, volunteerism is the spirit and the heart,” Hall said.
Hall noted that Maharry recently stepped away from active involvement with the thrift shop but remains engaged in the community through the American Legion Post 119 and other civic pursuits.
A lasting legacy
Though the proclamation was presented on his birthday, Maharry joked that such gatherings usually occur “at my stage of life” at one’s funeral.
Instead, Friday’s celebration served as a living tribute to a man whose life has blended medicine, military service, and community leadership.
From caring for patients to helping create a thrift shop that has returned more than $1.7 million to the Estes Valley, Maharry’s impact will continue to be felt for generations.
And now, at least officially in Colorado, May 16 belongs to him.
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