Harry Vogler is great to talk to if you have a spare ear. Sure as shooting, he'll talk one of them off.

But that's his job - to talk and promote, talk and promote Griffith Centers for Children, a nonprofit with a youth ranch in Larkspur and branches from the Front Range to the Western Slope. The centers work with troubled youth and their families and also has an adoption agency and foster homes.

And he talks quite well. He is the Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer Award winner for March. The award is named after the late community activist.

"We touch about 1,500 lives a year - kids, adults and families," Vogler said.

He is 82 and has been on the board of directors "since the early '60s," persuading people and businesses into donating money to keep the programs going.

"What got me started into that, I joined the Kiwanis Club of Denver in 1951," he said.

Vogler is a Denver original. He graduated from South High School in, as he said, "1942 and a half."

"I went to summer school. It was my dad's idea," he said. "He said you do that and start college and it might keep you out of the draft a little longer."

Vogler didn't listen to Pop. He didn't want to work in the family business. And he didn't want to continue college. So he went into what was then the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1944 and became a radar mechanic.

The good thing about being in such a technical field is he spent so much time in training, the war ended before he could be shipped overseas.

After he got out, he figured being in the family business looked pretty good after all. So he joined the company his dad founded in 1926.

Vogler expanded it to include a distributorship of diesel engine components like fuel injectors, turbos, heaters. His son-in-law runs it now.

Vogler works out regularly at the Denver Athletic Club.

He is content to do his volunteer work.

"I haven't skied in 30 years. I sold my golf clubs seven years ago to my No. 1 son," he said. "And I never felt so good to get rid of all that frustration."

He's still active in Kiwanis.

"It's a people thing, you see," he said. "You've got good friends. They've got a program going. Say you paint this house for somebody. They feel good. And it makes you feel good."

He loves promoting Griffith Centers. He has a group of core donors whom he keeps trying to bump up in donations, often giving guided tours of the ranch.

Vogler refuses to give up on kids who need and families who want a second chance.

"You've got to have something on your plate every day. You've got to have a challenge," he said.

Vogler couldn't do what he does, wouldn't have been asked to stay on with Griffith Centers if he wasn't a straight shooter.

"This is just something I believe in," he said. "It's easy to talk about it."

Massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271

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