Former City Council member Bill Roberts, the father of Denver International Airport, died Saturday evening after an 18-month battle with cancer.
His death moved former Mayor Wellington Webb and Denver Housing Authority director Sal Carpio to tears.
Webb said Roberts would be remembered as a leader of passion, intelligence and unfailing generosity. Roberts was the first public official to call for the construction of Denver International Airport because he feared for the safety of city dwellers who lived beyond the runways of Stapleton Airport, Webb said.
“Bill was a visionary,” the former mayor said as he choked with emotion.
Beyond the public eye, Roberts, who had owned a successful construction business, helped minorities learn trades and to start their own businesses, as he had, Webb said.
Roberts, 69, served on the City Council from 1971 to 1989, when he resigned to serve a stints as deputy mayor and director of public works.
Webb appointed Roberts to the Denver Water Board in 1997. Roberts recently resigned as the board’s president.
“I appointed Bill because I knew he would always stand up for the ratepayers,” Webb said. “He had an abiding loyalty to everyday people.”
Sandra Roberts said her husband died peacefully, surrounded by family.
“He fought a good fight,” she said. “He fought to the end.”
Funeral arrangements had not yet been made. Roberts was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in June 2004 but had elected to keep his suffering from friends and colleagues.
Carpio, who served on the City Council with Roberts, had lunch with him just two weeks ago because Roberts wanted to discuss the status of a proposed job-training program.
Carpio said Roberts’ integrity would be his legacy.
“He always did what he believed in,” Carpio said as his voice trembled. “He had principles, and he stuck by them. I always looked up to him.
“He’s going to be missed. He was one of the real good guys of Denver.”
In 2000, Roberts and his brother, Charles, received Denver’s Martin Luther King Jr. Business Social Responsibility Award for building Shaka’s Place, a $1 million youth technology center on East 38th Street.
Denver Water manager Chips Barry said Roberts’ greatest talent was to comprehend and explain highly complex matters in terms anyone could understand.
“When Bill cared passionately about something, he worked very hard at it,” Barry added.
Roberts was a native of Toccoa, Ga. His father, Leroy Roberts, was a rural grocer who, with his wife, Zora Lee, gave away food to the needy throughout their lives.
Bill Roberts came to Colorado in 1958 as a chemist’s assistant in the Army, stationed at Fitzsimons hospital. He never left his adopted hometown.
Roberts also is survived by a son, William Roberts Jr. of Denver, and two daughters, Jada Roberts of Denver and Joy Roberts of Los Angeles. He had one grandchild, Maia Roberts, 9.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
