Hillary Will, who drives an 8000-plus horsepower Top Fuel dragster, is in the Denver area this weekend for the 28th annual NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals, a NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event being run at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo.  But while her focus will be on racing, she plans a side trip tomorrow (Thursday) with her Grandpa, Dad, and brothers, to Greeley to visit her heritage.

Along with her brothers, Hillary’s guide will be her Grandpa, Connie Will, who was born in Greeley, Colo.,  in 1930 and raised in the area before leaving at age 17 to join his father in California.  Her Grandpa was actually, Connie, Jr. and was known during his childhood and teens as “Chipper” or just plain “Junior.”

Chipper’s grandfather came to Colorado from Germany in the late 1800s to work for Coors as a head brew master.  His dad followed his dad to the USA in 1903.  In 1910, they left behind the city life, rounded up the cows, and headed in horse and buggy about 50 miles north to what is now the Greeley area to homestead.  Twenty years later the third generation of the Will Family in America – Connie, Jr. or Chipper – came along. Hillary Will, who drives an 8000-plus horsepower Top Fuel dragster, is in the Denver area this weekend for the 28th annual NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals, a NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event being run at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo.  But while her focus will be on racing, she plans a side trip tomorrow (Thursday) with her Grandpa, Dad, and brothers, to Greeley to visit her heritage.

Along with her brothers, Hillary’s guide will be her Grandpa, Connie Will, who was born in Greeley, Colo.,  in 1930 and raised in the area before leaving at age 17 to join his father in California.  Her Grandpa was actually, Connie, Jr. and was known during his childhood and teens as “Chipper” or just plain “Junior.”

Chipper’s grandfather came to Colorado from Germany in the late 1800s to work for Coors as a head brew master.  His dad followed his dad to the USA in 1903.  In 1910, they left behind the city life, rounded up the cows, and headed in horse and buggy about 50 miles north to what is now the Greeley area to homestead.  Twenty years later the third generation of the Will Family in America – Connie, Jr. or Chipper – came along.

Chipper remembers growing up on a large ranch and farm of about 2500 acres.  His mother passed away when he was three and his father moved to Denver and got into the construction business.  Chipper stayed behind and was raised by his grandparents on his father’s side, while his sister Virginia was raised by his mother’s grandparents.  

He went to grade school in Dornish, which is no longer there, and to Gill High School.  Chipper spent his non-school time breaking horses and roping calves.  One interesting hobby he had was boxing which he picked up from his father, who boxed with best of the era.  But as Chipper puts it he didn’t last long at boxing.  He was more a lover than a boxer.

He remember being in the Greeley area in December of 1941.  “I was walking from the bunk house to the main house when my uncle came out and said the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor,” recalled Chipper, who was still in school.

During World War II, Chipper’s father worked at an Air Force base in Washington State.  On the way back he stopped in Eureka, California and eventually Chipper joined him and a new era of Will history began to unfold in California.

Tomorrow’s visit to the Greeley will be a step back in time so that the fourth and fifth generation of the Will Family can see where Grandpa Connie grew up.  Connie, Jr.’s son Steve has been to Greeley four or five times, but this will be the first trip to the Colorado roots of Chipper (Grandpa) for the grandkids.