For more than four decades, The Villager has paused each winter to name a Man and Woman of the Year — a local honor that sits beside the paper’s news pages, not above them. In the Jan. 28, 2026 edition, the paper chose two elected officials whose beats cover the same South Metro map The Villager has covered since its early years: Greenwood Village Mayor George Lantz and Arapahoe County Commissioner Carrie Warren-Gully.

Publisher Bob Sweeney framed the choice in his Barbwire Bob column that week under the headline theme “The Men and Women in The Arena.” The honorees, he wrote, are “longtime veterans of public service, both as volunteers and currently elected officials to high offices in Greenwood Village and Arapahoe County.” The honor, he said, has been bestowed “for leadership and public service during the publishing of this 43-year-old newspaper,” and he credited columnist Freda Miklin with interviewing both officials for the feature package.

That lineage matters as much as the 2026 names. Sweeney wrote that the recognition has gone to “over 60 public servants, business leaders, and elected officials,” with past profiles by Glory Weisberg and Scottie Iverson among the writers. He offered a partial roll call of early recipients — among them Fred Tesone and Barbara Davis in 1983; Woodie Noel and Dan Reeves in 1984; Joy Burns and Marjorie Page in 1985; Edie Marks, Freda Poundstone, and Bill Cook in 1986; Sharon Whiton Gelt and Walt Imoff (as spelled in the column) in 1987; Sherrye Berger and Bill Daniels in 1988; Arlene Mohler Johnson and Bob Albin in 1989 — “the honored list continues onward into 2026.”

New in 2026, Sweeney added a Nonprofit of the Year category featuring Friends of Nursing. The full Nonprofit of the Year feature text from the Jan. 28 edition was not available for this digital package and will be attached when the print body is in hand.

Mayor George Lantz

Greenwood Village’s own newsroom treated Lantz’s selection as civic news. In a Feb. 27, 2026 newsflash, the city said Lantz had been named The Villager’s Man of the Year and described the honor as recognition of “extraordinary leadership, vision, and unwavering service to Greenwood Village over more than three decades.” The city pointed readers to the Man of the Year feature in the Jan. 28 Villager.

The city’s post quoted Lantz:

“My family and I have called this city home for over 36 years, and I am grateful for the opportunity to give back to a place that has given me so much. Greenwood Village is truly special. I am honored to serve with City Council, our dedicated board and commission members, and hardworking city staff, all of whom contribute every day to making our community a wonderful place to live, work, and visit.”

Freda Miklin’s full Man of the Year interview with Lantz ran in the Jan. 28 Villager; the complete interview body is forthcoming on this site. This package does not invent or reconstruct that interview.

Commissioner Carrie Warren-Gully

Sweeney’s column names Arapahoe County Commissioner Carrie Warren Gully (his spelling) as Woman of the Year alongside Lantz. The Villager published a matching Woman of the Year page dated Jan. 28, 2026. Cherry Creek Basin Water Quality Authority later noted the recognition of board member Carrie Warren-Gully on LinkedIn.

County biographical material identifies Warren-Gully as the District 1 commissioner, sworn in in January 2021 and a former Board Chair in 2024. The county page says she represents Sheridan, Bow Mar, Columbine Valley, Englewood, Littleton, Cherry Hills Village, western Centennial, and parts of unincorporated northern Arapahoe County; lists prior service on the Littleton Public Schools Board of Education (2013–2020); and notes she founded Books to Life, an audiobook company, in 2014. Those facts are background from the official bio — the full Woman of the Year feature interview is forthcoming.

Why it still reads as looking back

Sweeney closed the column by quoting Theodore Roosevelt’s April 23, 1910, “Man in the Arena” speech — the passage beginning “It is not the critic who counts…” — as printed in Barbwire Bob. The gesture fits the franchise: The Villager has long used the Man and Woman of the Year pages to argue that public service in Greenwood Village, Arapahoe County, and neighboring cities is work done in public, under criticism, over years.

Arapahoe County

Looking back: The Villager’s Man and Woman of the Year, 2026