Born: October 8, 1895
Died: May 31, 1990
Historic Saranac Lake board member Kirk Peterson interviewed Paul Smiths College library director Neil Surprenant, 2014:
Deo Colburn was Melvil Dewey's secretary and manager at the Lake Placid Club. Deo was a close friend of a number of area notables, including Phelps Smith, Paul Smith's only surviving heir and owner of the Paul Smith's corporation, which included its Electric Light and Railroad Company. Deo was a key player in the '32 Olympics and told Neil that one evening Phelps arrived with an attractive lady on his arm, and took two of the best seats at center ice for the premier event--women's figure skating featuring Sonja Henie. Shortly thereafter another couple arrived with tickets to the seats Phelps had taken and asked him to move, but he refused. An usher also asked Phelps to move after checking the tickets and, as Deo told Neil, informed the usher that if he had to move he would shut off all of the power to Lake Placid. The usher went to get Mr. Colburn who, when he saw who it was in the seats, knew that Phelps would make good on his threat, and found the other couple seats at another spot in the arena.
Deo Colburn was also a frequent visitor to the Paul Smith's resort and during the 1920's although liquor was proscribed, many of its patrons wanted a drink nevertheless. Deo told Neil that there was a secret bar in the basement of the old hotel at that time store (torn down in 1982). Whenever patrons wanted to go to the bar, Deo said, they asked to go to the "hardware counter," the code for getting a drink.
There was a long court battle after Phelps died in 1937 over his estate, which he had left to establish a college in his father's name. Deo told Neil that the reason Phelps left his estate to found a college was that he had seen the boom and bust cycles of the extractive industries such as logging and had seen how devastating is was for local residents when mills closed. A prime example of this lay just a few miles down the Keese's Mills road in the village of Brandon (there is a town of Brandon in northern Franklin County and the town and village are often confused; the village was in the Town of Santa Clara), which had been abandoned after the surrounding white pine had been clear cut in the 1890's. Deo said that Phelps believed that a college would provide sustainable long-term employment for area residents as well as educational opportunities for area youth, something that was also important to Phelps, who had no children himself.
