| The first edition of Colorado Water Law was authored by the long-time Colorado water lawyer, George Vranesh, who died in 1997. It was published in 1987 as a three-volume treatise, covering the history and application of water law principles in a state sometimes said to have the purest form of the appropriation doctrine for the allocation of water resources. |
| Born and raised in Carson Lake, Minnesota, George left high school to join the U.S. Army during World War II. He fought as a paratrooper in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was wounded and received the Purple Heart. After recuperating from his war injuries, he completed high school in Cleveland, Ohio, the home of his widowed mother. |
| George moved to Colorado for college, graduating from Colorado School of Mines in 1951 with a degree in mining engineering. He then worked several years as a miner and engineer in Utah, and formed a company, Ouray Uranium, in Moab. In 1957 George married Etta Jo Cleaver of Golden, Colorado, who encouraged him to study law. He graduated from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1961, at the age of thirty-six. |
| As a practitioner in Boulder, Colorado, George specialized in water and natural resources law at a time when the West was experiencing its earliest stages of rapid population growth. He eventually opened his own firm, taught classes in water law at the University of Colorado, and served as a Colorado Water Referee. |
| The three-volume treatise, Colorado Water Law, was a labor of love for George. He produced it over a period of several years in association with a number of research assistants, many of whom were law students at the University of Colorado. They speak fondly of their work with George Vranesh, remembering his warm humor, professionalism and endless fascination with the complex law of water. |
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