Warren Bleecker Papers

Warren F. Bleecker was born October 19, 1877, in Rushville, Illinois. He came to Colorado as a young boy, and attended school in Pueblo and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. After graduating from C.U. in 1903, he taught chemistry and physics at a local preparatory school. From 1906-1909 he was C.U.’s graduate manager of athletics.

Bleecker was a pioneer of chemical and metallurgical research and became an expert of radium, rare metals, and explosives. During the years 1912-1915 he was general superintendent of the Standard Chemical Company, Canonsburg, Pa. From 1915-1919 he was the president and manager of Tungsten Products Company, Boulder. From 1919-1922 he was president of Carnotite Products Company, Boulder. In 1923 he founded Boulder’s Bleecker & Co., Inc. where he produced the Zero Hour Time Bomb, an innovation for shooting oilwells at great depths.

Bleecker was also active in state and local politics. He served a term as state representative from Boulder County, 1928-1930, during which time he was chairperson of the Finance Committee of the House Ways and Means Committee. In 1932 he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Republican gubernatorial primaries. His platform focused on improvement of the state highway system and tax reform. Before his death on June 13, 1936, he had served as a member of the U.S. Mineral Research Council, president of the Colorado Tax Council, and president of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce.