By Dave Burdick
In early 2016, before Denverite had a name, a newsletter, an office or a staff, a photographer named Kevin J. Beaty was one of the true and unrepentant weirdos who applied for a job here.
Kevin has recently been honored by the Denver Public Library with the 2025 Eleanor Gehres Award for pointing his curiosity, his compassion, his tenacity and his camera at history in the making for a decade or so, much of which includes his time at Denverite.
He’s allergic to sharing good news about himself, so Denverite editor Andy Kenney asked me to do it.
Kevin’s great.
Along with the others who started Denverite, he informed how this group of journalists would earn and build trust with people in the community who were represented in our work (well before they were represented in our work) and how Denverite would look and feel for readers.
For a guy who’s always in motion, he knows to let a moment breathe – a lot of humanity happens between headlines. Impossible to sum up a decade’s work in a few bullet points, but here’s a sampler:
- The fight over Montbello High has always been bigger than a school. The Montbello Warriors have always been bigger than sports.
- ‘It isn’t normal’: 21 hours of homelessness, crime and community at Denver’s “Top Gun” calzone shop on Broadway
- The next generation of Mexican Cowboys: Colorado youth are embracing the legacy of Charrería
His high-curiosity, low-ego approach to each day’s work is rocket fuel for journalism that bridges divides and connects dots. His dedication to the meaning behind stories over the course of years is the root system undergirding countless of his and his colleagues’ stories.
The guy can take a pretty memorable portrait, too.
Kevin also became the No. 1 Denverite advocate for using the resources of the library, teaching readers and anyone who’d listen about how to learn the history of their city through Sanborn fire maps, sharing Denver history through photos in the Western History Collection and, sure why not, taking a Denverite reader to the top of the library so they could see what’s on top of the library.
Kevin is the 25th recipient of the Gehres award, which is given to those who have made a “significant contribution of library materials … scholarship, life-long service or bequest, thereby enhancing the Western History Collection and its value to the community.” Eleanor Gehres was the manager of the Western History and Genealogy Department for 25 years until her death in 2000.
Kevin will be honored at an event on Monday, May 5.
Here’s what the library said about the award: “His reporting at the Denverite and Colorado Public Radio are crucial resources for the Denver Public Library's Special Collections and Archives Department, which integrates his work into its collections. A robust historical record depends on those capturing events as they unfold, and Kevin’s work strengthens the connection between past, present, and future. Kevin also frequently utilizes archival materials to add historical depth to his reporting.”
Beyond a lovely portfolio, Kevin has a can-do attitude and friendly persistence – he’s told us all it comes from time as a waiter, but in reviewing the emails we exchanged in 2016, I think maybe he’s just preternaturally weird in a way that resonates with people. He models a generous, supportive, “yes-and” outlook that frankly doesn’t exist in the vast majority of newsrooms I’ve peeked into, and I thank him for having done it for the entirety of Denverite’s history to date.
People like to beat up on former editors for brevity, so I don’t have room to tell you about the time somebody from the airport once called me to ask where exactly Kevin was standing when he took a photo of Blucifer, or how he made a city councilman’s cat famous or about how he officiated the first Denverite wedding.
But I do have time to tell you this: When the public library says thanks for making a difference, I’m pretty sure that means something to Kevin. And it should. He embodies a library-like mission of making information accessible, useful and delightful.
Dave Burdick is the founding editor of Denverite. Now he's just a regular Denver guy who reads and donates to support the important, fun and enriching local work done by Denverite!
