(upbeat music plays) - Hello, I'm Gregg Moss and I'm excited to share information about the Colorado Business Hall of Fame.

For more than three decades now, Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountai and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce have joined forces to honor Colorado's most accomplished and philanthropic businessmen and women through events and programming that inspire young people to become future business leaders in our state.

Every year, a class of laureates is inducted into the Hall of Fame at a premier black tie event where they're recognized for their long-term impact on our economy as well as their generous contributions to communities throughout the state.

Like these laureates, Colorado is fortunate to have organizations like Junior Achievement and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce that motivate students and young professionals to leverage their skills and passions to ensure that Colorado continues to thrive.

- The partnership the Junior Achievement shares with the Metro Denver Chamber is a perfect fit.

They're laying the brickwork of how this community will function long into the future, and we're the building blocks of the next generation.

- The investments that have been made by those generations before, that whole 157 years of the Chamber of Commerce, who's working to build the Colorado economy, that's the platform on which the next generation of business leaders, men and women striking out on their own.

That pioneering spirit hasn't left us this 160 years later.

It's still going strong.

And to see it then in the youth reflected through Junior Achievement and the programs they have is really encouraging that Colorado will have a bright future.

- Colorado's known for its stunning natural beauty and with its towering mountains and pristine lakes, it's a perfect getaway for the outdoor enthusiast.

In this program, we're gonna showcase some of the Colorado Business Hall of Fame laureates who've truly made Colorado into a destination.

Our featured Colorado Business Hall of Fame laureate stories will take us from the early 1800s along the Santa Fe Trail where a unique fort became a gathering place, to the Colorado mountains and how several laureates had a significant impact on the ski and resort industry, to the stunning landscapes of Rocky Mountain National Park, Pikes Peak, and the luxurious Broadmoor Hotel.

And finally, we're gonna meet the men and women who contributed to Denver International Airport and the revitalization of Union Station, which both bring millions of visitors to our beautiful state every year.

We start our journey with William Bent, who played a pivotal role in the early development of Colorado.

He initially came to the area as a fur trapper, but became a liaison between whites and Native Americans and in fact, was a key player in relations between the Cheyenne and the U.S. government.

Some consider William Bent to be the first true Colorado pioneer.

- He's very much emblematic and illustrative of the complications of the American West.

- [Gregg Moss] One of 11 children, William Wells Bent was born in 1809 in St. Louis, Missouri.

- They had started in the fur trapping business back in Missouri and headed West to discover partnerships, kind of figure out the lay of the land.

- But eventually, he ends up near the present site of Pueblo and we think that's where he first made his contact with the Cheyenne and made a really good friendship there that would last for the rest of his life.

- [Gregg Moss] William, his brother Charles, and partner Ceran St. Vrain established Bent's Fort in 1833.

- Bent's Fort was calculated to be put kind of smack dab in the middle of the Santa Fe trail because that was the primary way that Anglo-Americans are moving across the plains and across the frontier and down into what was initially Spanish-held territory.

Really, they came in at a crucial change in the fur trading business when there was a huge decline in those smaller animals but they could see the potential in larger animals, particularly buffalo.

- The big difference here, Bent, St. Vrain & Company drives all those others out of business.

- [Holly Norton] He was able to recognize some of the needs that people had on what was then the frontier in the borderland and what he had access to in places like St. Louis and start making that trek.

- [Gregg Moss] Bent's Fort employed nearly 100 people and functioned as a trading post, an outfitter for trappers, and a safe resting place for travelers, as well as a watch post for the U.S. Army and the center of the bison hide trade.

- Coming into the fort to trade here, say if you're a Cheyenne warrior and you come in here to trade, you're trading out a buffalo robe which to you is a commodity 'cause at this time, there's still millions of buffalo.

But you can walk into that trade room But you can walk into that trade room and literally trade for something from any continent around the globe.

- [Holly Norton] Bent really created an environment where people could socialize, where they could trade information.

Information was almost more valuable than actual things they were exchanging for.

- Here, one of the clerks mentions that you could hear on a busy day a dozen different languages being spoken here.

- [Holly Norton] He somehow was able to keep the peace for, you know, 25 years in this place.

- We know from some of the accounts of the time that people referred to, after being out in the prairie for two months on the way here, and the first thing you'll see is that flag if it's flying, so you'll see that fluttering in the breeze and you know you're at a safe point where you can kinda let down your guard a little bit and relax a little bit on your journey.

- William married a Cheyenne woman.

He actually married her sisters as well, so he married three Cheyenne women, which was in keeping with Cheyenne tradition.

- [Gregg Moss] The Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1858 led to increased conflicts and despite an apparent peace agreement, U.S. forces killed and mutilated 200 to 400 Cheyenne in the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864.

- Sand Creek Massacre was I think in many ways kind of personally devastating to many members of the Bent's family, including William.

- [Gregg Moss] Trade dwindled in the 1850s, so William became a mediator and representative for the Native Americans.

He tried relentlessly to give them better treatment from the federal government.

- William Bent's legacy in Colorado is he's really one of the first people to reach across all these different lines of all these different communities that are here.

You could argue he's the first pioneer of Colorado.

- In the Denver area, a courageous woman broke gender barriers and forged her own path.

Mary Elitch Long, also known as the Gracious Lady of the Gardens, was a successful entrepreneur during a time when women had very few freedoms in our society.

At that time, she was the only woman in the world who ran an amusement park.

- A single woman on the frontier of the American West with a large business to run and she doesn't skip a beat.

- [Gregg Moss] Known as the First Lady of Fun, Mary Elitch Long was a pioneer businesswoman and community activist.

Mary Hauck was born in Philadelphia in 1856.

- [Steve Turner] Her family moves to California and at age 16 she meets, falls in love and marries John Elitch.

They end up coming to Colorado to build a new life, and she and her husband ultimately end up starting Elitch's and he is quite a bit older than her and passes away.

- [Gregg Moss] As a result, Mary Elitch became the first female zookeeper, the first woman to run a botanical gardens and one of the first women to own a theater in the United States.

- Elitch's was the first true zoo in the West to have tigers and lions and elephants and all these exotic animals.

Elitch's had an area where the bears were kept and every day Mary Elitch would go in and hand-feed these bears.

So clearly, this was a very brave woman.

- [Gregg Moss] Mary was short on cash and sold the majority of the garden stock to a group of Denver capitalists.

She remained with the company and regained total control over the gardens in 1894.

- So what we see is her as a leader with tenacity, business acumen, able to deal with the struggle of business and keeping it alive.

- [Gregg Moss] In 1899, Mary married Thomas Long.

- [Steve Turner] While they're in Europe, they see amusement parks that have fun amusement rides, roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, those kinds of things.

And Mary brings that idea back to Denver.

- And what she ended up doing was creating summer theater where it wasn't, creating bands, concerts, just entertainments, and doing it in a place like Colorado that was heck, the Stock Show was just getting formed in 1906.

- [Gregg Moss] Over the next 20 years, Mary provided high quality, low cost entertainment for visitors from around the world.

- [Cathey McClain Finlon] I think of her as someone who was part of all of that growth of Colorado, but she was a female leader at a time that it wasn't easy.

- Our next few laureate stories really began as a classic American tale.

Two young men come West, discover gold, they become millionaires overnight.

Charles Tutt Sr. and Spencer Penrose left a legacy that's worth its weight in gold.

We're gonna start with Spencer Penrose, who arrived in Colorado Springs at the invitation of his childhood friend, Charles Tutt, and how the Tutt family influence continues to steward the Penrose legacy today.

- Spencer Penrose was kind of an outrageous character.

He lived life large.

He was known to enjoy drink and parties and had an outrageous sense of humor.

- And he understood the value of marketing.

He understood the value of promotion, but he also had the business savvy to make sure that those businesses worked and that they were successful.

- [Gregg Moss] Spencer Penrose was born in 1865 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He was the fifth of seven sons in a prominent Philadelphia family.

After graduating from Harvard in 1886, Spencer had little interest in following in the family's footsteps, so the adventurer headed West.

- And he's struggling.

And he arrives in Denver in 1892, and he has a good friend, a childhood friend, Charles Tutt, who lives in Colorado Springs.

- Spencer Penrose borrowed $500 from Charles Tutt to invest in the C.O.D mine.

- [Gregg Moss] Together, Charles and Spencer struck it rich during the Cripple Creek gold rush.

- And the real money to be made was in milling and refining the gold ore.

So their transportation and milling and refining network grew, and then they began to invest in other types of ores, specifically copper.

By 1910, Spencer Penrose was getting about $1 million a year from the copper mines in Utah, and he becomes an extremely wealthy man.

- [Gregg Moss] With his immense fortune, Spencer and Julie Penrose contributed to virtually every prominent landmark in Colorado Springs.

- In 1915, Mr. Penrose had the idea to build an automobile highway that would take motorists to the top of Pikes Peak.

He recognized that auto tourism was a burgeoning industry in the United States and realized that if he built a road to the top of Pikes Peak, that people would come from all over the country to drive that road.

- Gets an idea to have a race up Pikes Peak in 1916.

And he puts up the $2,000 prize himself.

It's such a wild idea that people would be racing automobiles up Pikes Peak that it's covered on the front page of 650 newspapers around the world.

I mean, it's a splash hit.

It is huge.

- The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is the second longest-running automotive race in the United States, second only to the Indianapolis 500.

- [Gregg Moss] Also, in 1916, Spencer purchased a site just outside of the city to build the hotel of his dreams.

- What really is kind of special, 1918, when the Broadmoor opens its doors, Colorado Springs was about 8,000 people.

Today, Colorado Springs has grown to be 475,000 people.

And along with that growth, the Broadmoor has grown along with it.

- Spencer Penrose was not satisfied with just a world-class hotel.

He wanted to make sure everyone saw it.

So, he put together the Million Dollar Club, which was hotel owners, hotel operators mainly from New York and Chicago.

- The longest-running five star, five diamond resort in the world.

- Spencer Penrose was a great promoter, whether it was the zoo, whether it was the cog railway, whether it was the, another funicular that he put in out in Manitou Springs.

It was always to promote the various entities which he owned.

- Penrose Heritage Museum was created by Julie Penrose in 1941.

It was actually known as El Pomar Carriage Museum, and its intention was to exhibit the collection of carriages that Spencer Penrose and Julie Penrose had acquired during their lifetime.

- He started El Pomar Foundation in 1937, two years before he passed away in 1939.

He made it a general purpose foundation that only makes grants to nonprofits in the state of Colorado.

- And his widow, Julie Penrose, continued.

And she was very philanthropic, liked the arts, liked education, and liked social services for people.

- This is a foundation where we cannot underestimate or overstate the influence that the El Pomar Foundation has had on the state of Colorado.

Over $500 million has been distributed.

- I think if there's one thing that sets El Pomar Foundation apart from many others, it's the quality of the staff and the people that have worked there, nurtured the fellowship program.

- [Kyle Hybl] You can wake up every morning and say, "Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Penrose, for giving us this opportunity to help people and organizations around this state."

- The Penrose legacy in the Pikes Peak region would not be flourishing to this day without the continued dedication of the Tutt family.

Since Spencer's passing, a member of the Tutt family has taken the reigns at both the El Pomar Foundation, and for many years, at the Broadmoor Hotel.

Our next two laureates, Thayer and Russell Tutt are the grandsons of Charles Tutt Sr.

Together, they had a significant impact on the region, which is now home to some of our state's most spectacular and popular attractions.

Dating back to the late 1800s, few families are as synonymous with the development of Colorado Springs as the Tutt family.

It all began with Charles Tutt Sr., who arrived in Colorado Springs in 1884.

His early partnership with fellow Philadelphian, Spencer Penrose, evolved into four generations of Tutts stewarding the legacy of the Broadmoor Hotel, as well as the El Pomar Foundation.

- Charles Tutt Jr. was inextricably linked to the Broadmoor Hotel, to all of the Penrose investments and to El Pomar.

And his sons, Thayer and Russell, were as well.

- William Thayer Tutt was my uncle.

He was born in 1912 on Coronado Island outside of San Diego.

- [Gregg Moss] Thayer served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, and he quickly rose through the ranks and received the exclusive Order of Merit award.

He came to the Broadmoor Hotel in 1946 and served as Vice President until 1961, when his father, Charles Tutt Jr., passed away.

- Then went on to be president, and then ultimately chairman and CEO until 1983 when my father, Russell Tutt, took over.

But what Thayer Tutt is most known for is his passion for sport.

And he saw the vision of the Broadmoor Hotel as being a worldwide focus on competitive athletics.

- There's no question that amateur sports and Colorado Springs are truly synonymous.

You look back at the hockey at the Broadmoor World Arena, the figure skating at the Broadmoor World Arena, and those were all brought to you through the really hard work of Thayer Tutt.

- He became involved in world figure skating and brought figure skating events to Colorado Springs.

He became involved in the Olympic movement.

He helped convince the United States Olympic Committee to relocate to Colorado Springs.

He made it possible, sort of championing the deal that brought the Olympic Training Center to Colorado Springs.

He was a passionate cheerleader for sports, but also for the Pikes Peak region.

- As I look back at Thayer and Russell Tutt, Thayer was the promoter.

Russell was the finance guy that kept things in order, and it was a great combination.

Great combination.

- [Gregg Moss] Russell Thayer Tutt was born in 1913, also in Coronado, California.

- My father enlisted at a ripe old age, I believe of 29 years old to go into World War II.

And so my father never talked much about the war, but he did tell us about winning the Bronze Star for battle in Germany, and they ultimately ended up going into several concentration camps and relieving them.

It was a challenging time.

- [Gregg Moss] And after the war, he worked at Penrose's Garden City Company.

- At that time, the company owned the utility, the railroad, as well as the farming property, and it was losing quite a bit of money.

So he spent the next nine years actually selling off everything but the land and El Pomar gets paid in crops.

So we have quite a significant investment in the Garden City Company.

My father came back to work for El Pomar in 1956 as vice president.

Then in 1977, he became President of the Foundation, succeeding his brother, Thayer.

- The Penroses, through the El Pomar Foundation and the Tutts, have really invested in the Pikes Peak region.

And I almost can't imagine a Colorado Springs without these two families helping shape who we are.

- [Bill Hybl] How many of us can create five to seven entities that 80 or 100 years later continue to thrive?

And they thrive because of the stewardship that is applied by people who follow the founders.

- Speaking of attractions, Rocky Mountain National Park didn't just happen by chance.

Two men, Enos Mills and F. O. Stanley were part of the driving force behind the dream.

♪ Rockys the park for all ♪ Rocky is a place for all Celebrating its 100th birthday, Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the state.

At the heart of the park's creation are two unlikely partners, Enos Mills and F. O. Stanley.

- They were the citizen activists and sort of the catalyst for making this happen.

But they also were really creating an early model of how it is to work between government and citizens and interest groups.

- [Gregg Moss] Enos Abijah Mills was born on April 22nd, 1870 in Linn County, Kansas.

- Enos Mills came here in 1884 as a young boy of 14 from a farm in eastern Kansas suffering from a wheat allergy.

- His family sent him to Estes Park to get over all of his allergies and get healthy again, which is interesting 'cause that's how Stanley came also.

He was ill. - [Gregg Moss] Enamored with the area, Enos built a small cabin that is now a museum, and while immersed in the deep woods, he became infatuated with wildlife.

- He was one of the first people in Colorado to actually study the wildlife more scientifically than the trappers or hunters had.

- In 1903, he was asked to take snow measurements high up in the mountains at the high lakes and the rivers.

And I think that really expanded his view of the beauty.

Although he'd hiked, now he had a mission - [Gregg Moss] While traveling, a chance meeting in San Francisco would change Enos' life - And that man was John Muir.

And the influence of that meeting was profound on Mills.

It took a young man who was rather aimless in his career, ambitions and goals and turned him into one of the leading conservationists and preservationists of his time.

- [Gregg Moss] Muir encouraged Enos to write of his adventures in the wilderness.

- People were amazed to read about a young man living in the deep, dark heart of the Rockies without a gun by himself.

- He was tireless, intelligent, committed, well-connected, not afraid to ask people for things.

- Enos had a lot of help in his drive to create Rocky Mountain National Park.

One of those was F. O. Stanley.

- He also contacted his friends on the East Coast to have them lobby in the government for Rocky Mountain National Park.

So they kind of ended up helping each other, which I find very interesting.

- [Gregg Moss] Freelan Oscar Stanley and his twin brother, Francis Edgar Stanley, were born in Kingfield, Maine in 1849.

- They definitely had an entrepreneurial mind and this inventor's mind from the get-go, even when they were kids.

- [Gregg Moss] The Stanley brothers invented dry plate photography, a revolutionary idea that led to how photos are captured today.

- And when they sold that company, the Stanley Dry Plate Company, in 1904, they sold it to George Eastman of Eastman Kodak.

About 1900, they began to dabble in automobiles.

And it was while they were working automobiles that F. O. Stanley came down with a recurring case of tuberculosis.

And in those days where there was no known cure, people were often sent to the mountains.

- [Gregg Moss] When F. O. came to Estes Park, there was barely a wagon trail up the mountain but he was determined to drive his steamer all the way to prove that a car could make it.

- [James H. Pickering] He invests in the town, he becomes the first president of the bank.

He gives us our water system, our electrical power system.

- If it were something that were for the good of mankind and he had the means to help make something happen, he would do it.

If there was a kid here locally that wanted to go to college and they couldn't afford it, he would go ahead and give 'em their tuition.

- [James H. Pickering] He built the Stanley Hotel, all 11 miles, an audacious undertaking.

- This was the home of F. O. Stanley.

He built it to look right at Longs Peak.

And when he built the Stanley, he set up the deck at the Stanley so he had the exact same view.

- There's four different balusters throughout the staircase, and there's four on each step so you have four here, four here, four here.

And what we're told is that they represent the four seasons of the year.

That also goes with the 12 steps leading up to this main staircase being the 12 months of the year.

- F. O. Stanley was a very large supporter of making the infrastructure of Estes Park available for tourists, while Enos wanted to make the natural environment and the wilderness available for tourists.

- Two more unlikely individuals on the surface.

F. O. Stanley, the man from the East, always impeccably dressed in Eastern fashion.

And Enos Mills, a man of the West who really was happiest when he was out on the trail with his guests at the inn talking about nature.

But they came together over a, in a group called the Estes Park Protective and Improvement Association.

Mills took the message across the country, lobbying various political groups, - And F. O. Stanley, again with that mind frame of is it good for everybody, basically said, "I'll go ahead and help finance this."

- [Eryn Mills] Rocky Mountain National Park was established in 1915 with an Act in Congress signed by Woodrow Wilson.

- 100 years later, Colorado's gift to the nation has benefited millions of visitors from around the country and the world.

Now we are here to rededicate this special place for the benefit and enjoyment of all Americans for the next 100 years.

- [James H. Pickering] What their actions and their vision has resulted in for this state and this place and this country is truly amazing.

- Our next two laureates are a father-son duo who revolutionized the ski industry.

After growing frustrated with ski designs, Thor Groswold opened up his own ski company in Denver.

He passed his love of the sport to his son Gerald, who then went on to be one of the most instrumental figures in the development of Winter Park and the Fraser Valley.

- [Gerald Groswold] My father was born in Kongsberg, Norway.

He immigrated into this country in September of 1923, but he also brought with him his love of skiing and a pair of skis.

And several friends came to him and said, "Look, you love to ski.

You complain about not being able to get a decent pair of skis.

Why don't you go in the ski business?"

And thus was formed the Groswold Ski Company.

- [Gregg Moss] Groswold Skis became the first official suppliers to the US World Alpine ski team in 1948.

- When he first came here, he started taking part in the competitions.

He also was on the various ski clubs, got to be president.

- [Gerald Groswold] He was really dedicated to the sport, had an enormous passion for it, and felt that should be shared with everybody that he could find.

- He was a real innovator in a lot of ways.

He's always trying new ideas and new ways of manufacturing, ways to cut costs to make a better product.

- [Gerald Groswold] He probably gave away as many skis as he sold.

- [Barney McLean] 10th Mountain people, if they needed any skis other than those big, heavy, army skis, he always gave them to 'em.

He just was an all around great person.

- [Gregg Moss] Thor was active in the establishment of many ski areas in Colorado including Winter Park.

His philosophy of always giving back to the sport of skiing has been passed down to son Gerry, also a pioneer in the ski industry.

- You couldn't grow up around a person like my dad without adopting some part of his infectious enthusiasm for what he was doing.

- [Gregg Moss] As President of Winter Park Recreation Association, Gerry implemented many programs that are vital to the area's success today, including the development of Mary Jane.

- I'm sure that our forefathers, when they drafted the constitution, never imagined that the government would be in the ski business.

And as a result, Gerry faced more challenges than the average ski manager or ski operator or skiing company president might face, you know?

And what happened is he took that ski area from a, you know, really a pretty low dollar valuation and he increased that value dramatically.

- So he had the vision to create a specialty area for first-time beginners to make it easy to learn the sports of skiing and snowboarding, and also to separate that part of the mountain from other parts of the mountain so these people had a real quality experience.

- [Gregg Moss] Under his leadership, Winter Park created the Children's Center and the National Sports Center for the Disabled, the largest, most successful program of its kind in the entire world.

- Here's a chance to provide some fun and games for some disabled kids, what turned out to be a program that literally provides the disabled with an opportunity to rebuild their lives.

- When I first started this program, without the support of Gerry Groswold, who was the President of Winter Park at that time, there's no way in the world there'll be any NSCD, National Sports Center for the Disabled, because he was so helpful and so generous in making this happen.

At one time, his entire family worked in the program.

- This trail is called Ski Papa.

If you want, we'll ski through this.

It's full of little bumps and hoop-de-dos and so on.

And it was a place where I used to bring my grandkids all the time to such an extent that they finally decided they'd name it that.

- He did it for his love of the sport, for his love of the area.

And of course, as a Colorado native, he wanted to see a ski area that could accommodate not only the black diamond skiers but the handicapped as well.

So, he had a number of accomplishments in the ski industry without self-benefit.

- The basic lesson my dad taught me was that skiing is a sport, it's also a business.

And he operated on the premise that you never took from skiing, that there was always a debt and that debt needed to be repaid, so you had to put back more than you took.

It's pretty easy to get passionate about skiing.

It's a unique opportunity.

Where else can you be outside, get some physical activity, be in an incredible environment?

It's a business that basically is a business of sharing.

- While the ski industry was starting to take form in other parts of the states, another high country town was facing serious decline following the silver crash.

It took one man's vision to revive it and what it's become today is something not even Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke could have ever imagined.

One of the very first chair lifts from Aspen Mountains, Lift One is on display here at the History Colorado Center.

It's remarkable to see how far the industry's come.

- They had a higher goal for Aspen, and as it's matured and grown it's been those guiding principles which was, have really steered it into a very unique and special place.

- His goal was to infuse values back into leadership.

- [Gregg Moss] A brilliant businessman who took a small family business and turned it into the dominant force in the global paperboard market also revitalized the sleeping town of Aspen.

- [Katie Fitzgerald] I think he is one of the biggest innovators of our time.

- [Gregg Moss] Walter Paepcke was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1896, the son of German immigrants.

He was educated at the Latin School of Chicago.

He formed the Container Corporation of America in 1926.

This highly successful business made boxes for corporate giants such as Procter & Gamble, Sears and GE.

Elizabeth Paepcke brought Walter to visit Aspen, Colorado in 1945.

- The price of silver crashed and then Aspen became all but a ghost town.

And post World War II, the population of Aspen was in the hundreds.

- [Person Off-Screen] And it didn't wake up until Walter came.

- [Gregg Moss] Walter developed his plan for the town's revival.

-And so, he started with Albert Schweitzer from Africa.

- [Katie Fitzgerald] He gave the convocation for the Goethe Bicentennial and the opening of the Aspen Center for Humanistic Studies.

- [Person Off-Screen] 2,000 people made their way to Aspen for the 20-day event.

The Goethe Bicentennial was an outstanding success.

- At that time, we thought it would be very interesting if it would be possible to have a renaissance of that type of community, where some of the three, or the only three, probably, parts of man's life, namely the economic, the cultural, educational, and the physical could all be enjoyed.

- [Gregg Moss] He established the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies, the International Design Conference, as well as the Aspen Music Festival and school.

- [Katie Fitzgerald] This is a place where people convene to exchange thought, exchange dialogue, to learn, to absorb, which I think is very, very rare in the United States of America.

- It shows a real generosity of spirit on Mr. Paepcke's part, that he was welcoming immigrants, seeing the potential in immigrants.

- [Gregg Moss] He was also instrumental in forming the Aspen Ski Company with a 10th Mountain Divisions leader, Friedl Pfeifer.

- To realize Pfeifer's vision, he needed money and he needed a co-visionary.

And Paepcke served that purpose.

And in 1946, Aspen Ski Corp was founded.

- Because of Walter Paepcke, there is a ski area here now, even though he didn't ski.

- And the longest, what was then the longest chairlift in the world, Lift One opened.

- [Gregg Moss] Walter knew that because of Aspen's remote location, the town would need an airport to attract visitors.

So he purchased the Biggs-Kurtz Ranch, just northwest of Aspen.

- By November of 1948, the first plane had landed at the Aspen Airport.

And access to this place was really a key way to get people here and get them to engage in the Aspen idea.

- Walter Paepcke's legacy is that he's really the base figure that got the little sleeping mining town into a world-famous place to meet.

- With the establishment of Aspen and other ski mountains, many of the 10th Mountain Division soldiers wanted to make their mark on the state.

On March 19th, 1957, soldier-skier, Pete Seibert and engineer Earl Eaton parked on the side of US Highway 6.

And then they hiked up to what Pete described as, "The most mind-blowing landscape of all, a series of bowls stretched to the horizon, a virtually treeless universe of boundless powder, open slopes, and open sky."

On this fateful day, plans were put in place to make Vail a reality.

With a vision of greatness and dogged determination, Peter Seibert transformed a sheep pasture in the Rockies into Vail Resort, one of the premier ski resorts in the world.

Peter Werner Seibert was born in Sharon, Massachusetts in 1924.

At the age of seven, he strapped on his first pair of skis.

- At the age of 10 or 12 he had a dream about starting a ski area.

- [Gregg Moss] He served in the 10th Mountain Division of the US Army during World War II and trained as an elite ski trooper at Camp Hale.

- Fought in Italy, was wounded.

It took about 18 months to recover from those injuries.

And within about two years, he was on the FIS World Championship team for the United States, that the races were held in Aspen.

So yeah, he came back strong.

- [Gregg Moss] After working as an instructor, as a ski patrolman and a mountain manager for Loveland, he continued his search for the perfect mountain.

- [Peter Seibert Jr.] That's when Earl came to Pete and said, "I found the mountain," and took him up and they saw the back bowls for the first time.

He knew this is gonna be the place.

- And they said, "We're gonna go down to the county commissioners to get permission to build this ski area, and would you like to come along?"

And I said, "Well, sure."

That's how it all got started.

- He was able to get enough investors in the late '50s.

So he had 10, it was $10,000 and you got a plot of land and you were also given four lifetime ski passes.

- You could not transfer that interest.

Other words, you didn't get a deed until you started building your house.

You, not somebody else, you.

- Which is a pretty incredible, futuristic, very forward-thinking process so that we became a community and not just a ski resort.

- Caulkins' Family is one of the original places.

It's a chalet in the true sense of the word.

I've always loved it.

I think it really indicates what those original partners were looking for.

- Vail opening was coming and it hadn't snowed.

- So desperate that they called down to the Ute Mountain, Ute Indian tribe.

They did a snow dance at Midvale.

- And sure enough, I think two days it snowed.

- [Gregg Moss] Vail Resort opened in December, 1962 with two chair lifts and one gondola.

Lift tickets were $5.

- [Peter Seibert Jr.] And then their timing was fantastic.

It, you know, the middle class was growing.

People were taking vacations, the sport of skiing was growing.

All these things hit at once.

- And then the big kick was in 1966 when Colorado adopted the condominium concept.

That law really accelerated the growth of Vail.

- [Gregg Moss] In just seven years, Vail grew to become the most popular ski resort in Colorado.

- Now we see a turnaround.

Our resorts have developed, Our snow conditions are typically better than Europe, are more consistent, and the Europeans are coming this way.

So it's grown from a kind of a mom and pop operation to, in the terms of the ski areas, to larger international resorts.

- And people look at it now and just assume that, well, of course this is a ski area and of course this is what it is.

But it wasn't, it was a chancey thing to do.

And they just, they were committed.

They got behind their dream and made it happen and now we're all here benefiting from it.

- [Gregg Moss] Pete was President of the American Ski Federation and the National Ski Areas Association and was inducted into the United States National Ski Hall of Fame.

- There's a quote on that plaque down below that did, he got from a French mountain guide that said, "If you really wanna know the mountains, when you get to the top, keep climbing."

And I think that's really what he'd be proud of, is that we continue to try to do that.

And that's, that was where they were right from the start.

- The story of Vail continues with a husband and wife team.

Rod and Beth Slifer reign as the king and queen of real estate.

He can sell you a high country home and she can perform the high style makeover.

With so many firsts, it's not hard to understand how the Slifers are often thought of as Vail's First Family.

- They've been so passionate about getting Vail to where it is and I think that that's one of the reasons they've been so successful in their lives and in their jobs, is that the passion they have for what they do is just incredible.

- Rodney E. Slifer was born in Brighton, Colorado, and after graduating from the University of Colorado, he served in the US Navy.

- I really loved skiing.

I went skiing every weekend and I just packed my bags and moved to Aspen.

- [Gregg Moss] Rod was asked to move to Vail to become its first ever assistant ski school director.

- I got there May 1st, 1962.

It was just starting to be constructed.

- All of you were really so brave.

Whatever possessed you to think?

- Yeah.

- That you even knew how to build lifts and cut trails?

- [Rod Slifer] It was just sort of a pioneering spirit among those that came early.

- We often tease him, he was there probably before the bridge and probably even before the mountain.

- [Gregg Moss] Rod started Vail's first real estate firm in 1966 and later joined forces with Harry Frampton and Mark Smith to form Slifer, Smith & Frampton.

- [Rod Slifer] We have 15 offices in the Vail Valley and offices in Keystone and Breckenridge.

- [Gregg Moss] Beth Slifer was born in Darlington, South Carolina and grew up in Jacksonville, Florida - And ended up graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I went to New York and I was a banker.

I went to Atlanta and I owned a small retail store and ended up as a volunteer for Jimmy Carter.

It was during the Carter administration that I met Rod.

- [Gregg Moss] The couple married in 1983.

Beth moved to Vail after Rodney assured her if she didn't like it, he would move to a big city.

- It only took a few months for me to figure out that that was a ruse, number one.

But number two, Vail was the very best place I could ever live.

- And she's had the very successful Slifer Designs for about 25 years now, starting in Vail and it's now in the Denver area as well, specializing in creating inspired living spaces.

- We didn't have the beautiful furniture, the lovely fabrics, we didn't have those before she came.

She brought us beauty.

- Everybody knows them to be the couple of Vail and they're very well known due to Beth's business background as well as her community service with the Paul Newman Camp and a variety of other non-profits, and obviously the Vail Foundation, with Rod's background in creating that non-profit as well as both of their commitments to (indistinct) legacy.

- [Martha Head] It was really fun to have them in our midst and they did a great deal for the community in putting us on the map.

- [Rod Slifer] I served on the Vail Town Council for 16 years and of the 16, I was mayor for 11 years.

- Rod's greatest asset is he knows everyone, everyone knows Rod and everyone likes Rod.

And you know, that's unusual.

That's unusual in business.

- [Ray Baker] In a statewide perspective, Rod is very committed to the University of Colorado and its non-profit real estate institution.

- I can't imagine if there's any couple in the state who've served on more boards and done more both for the community and the state.

Extraordinary.

What's amazing to me is they've been able to do that being on the opposite side of the political wall.

- Yes, it works out just fine.

- We usually avoid political discussions at the dinner table.

- And they have a party, you hope you're invited.

- But they've made such a contribution both in the Vail community and throughout the state of Colorado.

- [Martha Head] And it was really the vision of the pioneers and founders such as Rod that really set the course for making Vail what it is today.

And it's the tireless dedication of people like Beth that really keep us on that path.

- [Ray Baker] I think the two of them obviously are inseparable, not only as a couple but inseparable as far as accomplishments and what they've meant to our community.

- Harry Frampton came to Vail in the early 1980s and another legendary partnership was formed.

Since then, Harry's been a driving force in the evolution of the resort industry in Colorado and around the country.

He's also expanded into the Denver area to help the city restore a crown jewel of transportation, Union Station.

- If you're gonna live in Vail, Colorado, everybody knows Harry Frampton.

- He really is one of the great visionaries of this valley.

- [Gregg Moss] A brilliant visionary, Harry Frampton has made developing some of the world's premier ski resort towns into an art form.

Born in South Carolina in 1943, Harry H. Frampton III earned a graduate degree from Clemson University and went on to Harvard University's small company management program.

- Yeah, well I'd been in the resort business back on the East Coast, actually got a call from a headhunter who was looking for somebody to go out and run Vail Associates, which was the ski company.

And I said, "Well, why in the world would you call me?

'Cause I can't ski."

- It was tough times and the company was in really bad shape.

When we got there, there were buildings half built.

- And we had a lot of troubled projects and we were able to restructure those in a very important way.

But we significantly increased (indistinct), which was not done very much at the time.

I can remember putting music on the lifts.

I remember putting name tags on everybody, their hometowns.

And then I think the biggest thing is that we bought those four quad lifts that really transformed the ski industry in a very positive way.

- [Gregg Moss] Harry helped establish Vail as a world-class resort and served as President and CEO until Vail was sold in 1986.

Harry and Mark Smith then decided to continue their success in the area and formed East West Partners, becoming a major force in the development of Beaver Creek as well as the Vail Valley.

- We were able to work out a deal with George Gillett and Mike Shannon, who worked with him at the time, to be kind of a preferred developer.

And that's when we worked out the arrangement to build the Hyatt Hotel and other condominium projects and we were off to the races.

- Park Hyatt then has allowed us to do so many things to have that as an anchor hotel, such a quality.

- Harry was the Chairman of the Board of the Vail Valley Foundation for 35 years.

- We've had two world Alpine Ski Championships, both of which Harry was really the initial supporter to bring something like that here to the valley.

- [Mark Smith] The Foundation, the amphitheater being built, the Vilar Center being built, and all the programs that go along with that have really changed Vail and Beaver Creek.

- Summer took off, as we know, and that really became an integral part of the experience.

And then it really became more of a town and a community with more and more people living here.

- [Gregg Moss] With projects and properties in six time zones, East West Partners is taking great pride in partnering with cities to build vibrant communities.

- So we could bring the kind of resort experience to a downtown area.

Why wouldn't that work?

And that's what got us interested in the 25 acres right there in the middle of nowhere.

- Mark Smith was really one of the first large-scale developers who got what a lot of us lower downtown people were trying to do in terms of a walkable village downtown, a city within a city that would be residential first, and then the restaurants, you know, and nightclubs could come later.

- [Harry Frampton] We got hired again to redevelop the Union Station parcel.

- We did the plazas, we designed all that, all the canopies, everything that you see there was all part of, you know, the project we did as Union Station Neighborhood Company.

And that was really a lot of fun.

- [Gregg Moss] Now the entire Union Station neighborhood is an economic engine for the region.

And Union Station itself has been restored to its former glory as jewel of the city.

Harry enjoys skiing, biking and golfing, a sport he's shared with some famous faces.

- That story is on the 18th hole at Vail, there was a big crowd up on the green.

And I hit, I think, the two best shots of my life.

And I, it was a par-five.

I hit a 3 wood for my second shot and it ended up about two inches from the hole.

And Nicholas walked up on the green and everybody thought that Nicholas had hit the shot and it was me.

And he actually made a bogey, so that was my moment of glory.

- You're never finished.

You're always having to get better.

And I think that's been a strength of Colorado.

I know it's been a strength of Vail.

And I just think we have to always understand that, that we continue to have to observe what's going on in the world.

We have to look, talk to our customers, look at our community and say, "How do we get better?"

- He's a Renaissance man.

He's a complete man, he's a full man, and he's a great educator.

He's taught an awful lot of us an awful lot.

- Our last laureate's contributions connect Denver to the entire world.

Bob Albin was the driving force behind Denver International Airport, the single most important entity that drives tourism in Colorado today.

- There is no one individual that I'm aware of in the private sector that has had such an impact on our community as Bob Albin.

And it's in a singular role in the development and the continued support of what we now have as the main economic generator for our state.

It all comes back to one man's vision and one man's willingness to see it through to conclusion.

- When Bob walks into a room, his effervescent smile, his demeanor makes a complete stranger take notice.

- [Gregg Moss] Robert L. Albin was born in El Centro, California in 1941.

- When I was a small boy, we moved back to my dad's home place, which was back in Missouri and I became a Missouri farm boy.

- [Gregg Moss] After getting his degree in political science, Bob co-founded American Salesmasters in 1965.

- This was one of the first sales and management training companies in the country.

And we built a stable of famous sales speakers and trainers and eventually made films and videos and had offices in 18 countries.

- Bob Albin is a professional motivational speaker and he has gone around the country, the likes of Norman Vincent Peale, Zig Ziglar, Jesse Owens.

- [Gregg Moss] He formed his own consulting firm in 1982, which was purchased by First Data Corporation in 1995.

Bob rose through the ranks, becoming the Chief Operating Officer of Western Union North America, which was part of First Data at the time.

- And when we said we're gonna move the headquarters of Western Union to Denver, Colorado, they thought it was like moving us to, you know, the middle of a cattle ranch someplace.

We hired helicopters and airplanes and flew them around and said, "You know, there's where the Denver Broncos are and there, you know, there's where our fine arts center is."

- [Gregg Moss] Throughout his career, Bob dedicated much of his time to civic organizations, including the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, where Bob was the driving force behind Denver International Airport.

- The airport would not have been built without the support of thousands and thousands of citizens, both in Denver and Adams County.

But Bob stood out because he was representing the business community.

And so he either chaired a number of the committees himself or co-chaired them.

- People thought he was crazy initially, and maybe that's true of all great innovators.

But he shepherded this process for 17 years.

- From planning to finance, to elections, to the design, to hob-nobbing with members of Congress to get the financing and speaking in every neighborhood group and every business group of why the airport was important.

And it was truly an amazing thing to watch.

- On the day that we opened it, as I recall, the first time they had ever landed two airplanes simultaneously on parallel runways under instrument conditions.

And to have a chance to be intimately involved in that is a rare opportunity.

- [Doak Jacoway] This was not just a Colorado airport, this was a national infrastructure project that was important to the nation, to our economy and to the national transportation system.

- [Gregg Moss] While serving as Chairman of Junior Achievement, Bob was tasked by local leaders to create a Colorado Pro Sports Committee.

- It was a magnet that drew headquarter companies here because it was an an aspect of our community that made us a big league city.

- Bob's got his fingerprints over all of that.

- He's just naturally effervescent.

He's outgoing, he's warm, he's congenial, but he just instantly makes you wanna spend more time with him.

- He loves to play tricks on, especially his good friends.

And he's done that to me, had me arrested and then comes out from down the street and says, "What's going on?"

He's the original prankster.

- He spent a life creating opportunities for others.

- We need more of him in the city today.

We need more of him.

- [Ned Minor] People will be inspired by his accomplishments for generations.

(upbeat music plays) - Thanks so much for joining me and I hope you enjoyed learning about the League of Remarkable Leaders who've made legendary contributions to the free enterprise system and shaped Colorado into the extraordinary place that it is today.

- That's what's made Colorado so special.

It's having a canvas that is a gift from God, honestly.

And then having our entrepreneurs, those men and women coming with great ideas, utilizing our free enterprise system and a really pioneering, can-do spirit that Colorado has to build upon that to make it even more spectacular for the next generation.

- And when you look at the Hall of Fame, what better inspiration to get young people prepared for the future than to learn from the men and women who have built this state?

- Thanks again for joining me and taking time to learn more about the men and women who've made Colorado great.

(upbeat music continues)