Regis F Groff was an American school teacher, politician, and civil servant.
21 Facts About Regis Groff
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The second African-American elected to the Colorado State Senate, Groff served for 20 years in it.
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Regis F Groff was born in Monmouth, Illinois on April 8,1935.
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Regis Groff served a stint in the United States Air Force from 1953 to 1957 as part of the Northeast Air Command.
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Regis Groff moved to Denver, Colorado in 1963 to take a position teaching history at Smiley Junior High School.
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Regis Groff thereby became the second black elected to that body.
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Regis Groff was re-elected to a full term in 1976 and returned to the statehouse at each election up to his departure from the Colorado Senate.
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In 1976 Regis Groff was selected by his Democratic peers as Assistant Minority Leader in the Colorado Senate.
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Regis Groff was chosen by the Democratic caucus as Senate Minority Leader in the sessions held in 1978 and 1980.
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Regis Groff worked actively in efforts to force the state to divest from investments in companies dealing with the Republic of South Africa, then ruled by a white minority government on the basis of racial apartheid.
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Regis Groff traveled to South Africa, China, and a number of other countries in Europe and Africa on fact-finding missions and advancing the economic business of the state.
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In 1986 Regis Groff unsuccessfully ran for statewide office in an effort to become Lieutenant Governor of Colorado.
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Regis Groff resigned his seat the Colorado Senate in the first half of 1994 when Governor Roy Romer named him as the state's first director of the Youthful Offender System in Denver.
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Regis Groff was succeeded by Gloria Tanner, whose appointment made her the first African American woman to serve as a Colorado state senator.
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Shortly thereafter, Regis Groff resigned his position as the president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, a position he had held for four years.
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Regis Groff retired from state service in 1998, moving to the position of Executive Director of the Metro Black Church Initiative, a religious community service organization.
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Regis Groff died on October 5,2014, of lung cancer.
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Regis Groff was 79 years old at the time of his death.
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Regis Groff's papers are housed by the Denver Public Library in Denver, Colorado.
20.
Regis Groff's daughter, Traci L Jones, is a published and nationally awarded Young Adult Author of four published books.
21.
Regis Groff has a campus named after him in northeast Denver, Colorado.