Dr. Virginia ("Dr. Gini") Taylor passed away on January 12, 2025 at The Denver Hospice, surrounded by family members and friends who loved her. She was 61.

For the past year, she fought cancer in the same valiant, defiant way she used to ride her bike over Colorado mountain passes in the summer.

Gini was a longtime Denver-area pediatrician, an accomplished musician, a lover of all recreation offered by Colorado's mountains, and for many years a volunteer at Denver's Dumb Friends League animal shelter, where she even assisted veterinary surgeons with procedures from time to time.

Gini was a gifted physician and diagnostician who found in pediatrics both a calling and a mission. She was passionate about doctoring for underserved communities. Each of the hospitals and physician groups where she practiced emphasized service to disadvantaged communities. It was also one of her passions to serve Spanish-speaking families and patients in all of the medical practices where she worked. She realized early in her training that there were not enough Spanish-speaking doctors to serve her community, so she taught herself medical Spanish on the job and later mastered the language through formal independent study.

In addition to her clinical practice, Gini devoted time to medical missions in South America, to teaching pediatrics to other providers, and she became a recognized expert and advocate for universal testing and remediation of dyslexia in children.

Gini practiced as a primary care pediatrician in the Denver area for more than thirty years until cancer forced her retirement last year. She finished her career with Denver West Pediatrics in Golden, Colorado.

"She loved all of you with a passion and commitment rarely seen in the practice of modern medicine and there was nothing that she found more fulfilling in this world than connecting with each of you," Denver West Pediatrics said in a posting to staff members and families, many of whom were touched by Dr. Gini's care and compassion over the years. "She will be dearly missed by all of us who were lucky enough to enjoy the benefit of her friendship and doctoring."

Gini adored animals and lovingly adopted rescue dogs and cats throughout her life. She was an avid pianist, runner, back country ski tourer, sled dog trainer, volleyball player, sea kayaker, hiker, mountain biker, road cyclist, international traveler and foreign language learner. In addition to Spanish, Gini studied Quechua, French, German, Russian, and Ukrainian. It was on an adventure mountain biking trip to Peru in 2004 that she met the love of her life and future husband, Arturo, a professional cyclist. They fell in love, married, and welcomed their beloved daughter, Juliana Aragon Taylor, in 2009.

Gini was born in Wheat Ridge, Colorado on July 12, 1963, six minutes before her twin brother Bill. They were inseparable. Each considered the other the best birthday present either ever received.

Gini spent most summers growing up with her brothers and sisters in her geologist father's field camps in the Wet and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The experience fostered a deep love for Colorado, the outdoors, and wildlife that defined her life. Everyone who really knew Gini understood that she was happiest outside, particularly in the mountains, walking, bicycling, skiing or snowshoeing with her loved ones (including her dogs). A day that she couldn't spend at least part of outdoors was a misspent day, she believed.

Gini attended Wheat Ridge High School, where she was an avid math and science student, and in the tradition of her parents, a gifted musician. She  played clarinet, oboe, piano, and harp, and graduated in 1981. Gini then earned a bachelor's degree in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology along with a teacher's certificate from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1986. After graduating from CU, she taught high school biology, chemistry, and health in the Cherry Creek school district for several years. But a side job moonlighting as an emergency medical technician inspired her to become a doctor.

She joined her beloved younger sister, Peg, as classmates and study buddies at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and got her M.D. in 1993. She decided early on in her training that she wanted to be a pediatrician.

Gini so loved her native Colorado that she chose to apply to only one pediatric residency program -- at the University of Colorado Hospital/Children's Hospital.  She decided she would rather stay in Colorado and go back to teaching kids than attend a residency program in a different state if she was not accepted at UC/Children's. Fortunately for generations of future patients, Gini was accepted and completed her pediatric residency there in 1996.

She is survived by her daughter, Juliana; her husband, Arturo Aragon Baez; her mother, Phyllis Taylor (of Denver); her brothers and sisters -- Bill Taylor (California), Peg Squier (Delaware), Dick Taylor (Missouri), Bev Sher (Virginia) and their families; her nieces, Simone and Nathalie Bonnet; her "adopted triplet brother," Jack Moran and her goddaughter, Megan Moran; a tight circle of best friends; and her rescue critters, Yana and Misi. She was preceded in death in 2004 by her beloved father, Richard Taylor. She also leaves behind countless cherished former patients, their families, and esteemed medical colleagues from her three decades of service as a pediatrician in greater Denver.

A Celebration of Life will be held for Gini in the spring, outside in the Colorado mountains, where Gini was the happiest and most at home. Please watch this space for details.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made in Gini's name to the Colorado Gynecologic Cancer Alliance or the Dumb Friends League .