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Denver Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation has presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Larry Ambrose for his longtime work in preserving and enhancing the quality of life in Denver’s neighborhoods.
The Award was celebrated virtually at an awards ceremony, March 13, 2021.
Ambrose is executive director of the Southwest Improvement Council, whose purpose is to improve living conditions for its residents through civic engagement, health and human service programs and affordable housing.
Ambrose holds an MBA from UCLA and a JD from DU.
Ambrose, a Pueblo native, has been involved in the formation and advocacy of Denver neighborhood groups since 1973, when he and his wife, Jane, started one of Denver’s first such groups, Northwest Neighbors.
In the early 1980s he was a co-founder of Sunnyside Highland Jefferson Park Neighborhood Assn.
The Ambroses helped pioneer the LoHi Business District on 15th Street where they both had businesses.
In 2004, they became founding members of Sloan’s Lake Neighborhood Assn., where Larry Ambrose is vice president.
As community relations director of the Auraria Campus, he wrote the policies on community use of space. More notably, Ambrose played an instrumental role in saving the Golda Meir House from the wrecking ball in the early 1980s and moving it to Ninth Street Historic Park in 1988, where it was restored. It is named to the National Register of Historic Places.
Ambrose was a member of the Platte Area Reclamation Committee, where he advocated for a major city park in Central Platte Valley and was subsequently appointed by Mayor McNichols as the neighborhood representative to the Burlington Northern Development Committee.
Ambrose co-chaired a citywide building height control initiative that was on the ballot in 1985.
He was a leader in saving historic buildings in the Highlands and getting power lines buried in Highland Square business district.
He was also instrumental in creating the Viking Park entryway into NW Denver and establishing Denver’s system of dog parks.
Ambrose has served on numerous city planning committees and task force groups.
He was the Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation representative to the Visit Denver Olympics civic engagement subcommittee, and was instrumental in placing on the ballot in 2019 the successful Olympics Initiative, which requires Denver citizen approval of public expenditures for an Olympics held in Denver.
Ambrose was a co-founder of INC parks committee and served on the INC board for nine years as secretary, vice president and president.
While on the board, Ambrose initiated the creation of INC’s website, logo and branding.
He established a record of activism and advocacy through INC resolutions to Denver City government officials and initiated the creation of platforms for INC committees, starting with parks.
He formed the INC parks designation committee and appointed its first members.
To raise funds for INC projects, Ambrose initiated the idea of silent auctions at the INC annual awards dinner and took the dinners to a new level.
He held executive committee retreats which, for the first time, included building INC’s current mission statement to advocate for Denver citizens by bringing together, informing and empowering Denver neighborhood organizations to engage in addressing City issues.
Larry and Jane Ambrose are members of Temple Emanuel.
As a member of the Temple Brotherhood, he has twice been awarded the Morris E. Adelstein Awared for Humanitarian Service.
Information: Denver INC
