Doug Hoyt, a longtime developer whose work stretches from Denver to Hawaii, died Nov. 7. He was 84.
Private services were held.
Hoyt’s company, Eagle County Development Corp., developed residential properties in East Vail, Breckenridge and Roxborough Park and on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The Hawaiian development was called Prince ville, and that became the name of Hoyt’s company.
He also renovated one of Denver’s premier homes, the Smith Mansion on the northwest corner of City Park. The $1.3 million renovation updated the mansion and the carriage house, both built in 1902 by Frank Smith, son of Eben Smith, who was an early Colorado mining magnate.
The 1985 renovation resulted in 21 offices in the mansion and 10 in the carriage house, according to a Denver Post story. For a time, Hoyt had his own office in the carriage house, said his son, Bruce Hoyt of Denver.
Hoyt was involved in many Denver projects. In the 1980s, Denver hired him as chief negotiator for the City Convention Center Development Commission, and at one time he was president of Neusteter Realty Co.
For more than 20 years, he was a trustee at the Museum of Nature & Science and headed the Morrison Trust, which gave money to, among other things, the Georgetown Loop Railway and the Denver Zoo.
L. Douglas Hoyt was born in Hazel Green, Wis., on May 21, 1924, and met his future wife, Agnes Laurent, in high school in Richmond, Ind. They were married Sept. 9, 1950.
He was a captain in the Army Air Corps and flew 10 combat missions over Germany.
After the war, he earned his law degree at the University of Michigan.
The Hoyts decided to move West for the drier air, but they had little money and had to sleep in their car.
“Dad would call ahead to get interview appointments at various law firms,” said his son, and before arriving for an interview, “he would clean up at a truck stop.”
He landed a job with Holme Roberts Moore and Owen, as it was called then, and later became a partner.
But he “tired of the law” and left for a job with Consolidated Oil and Gas and went into development, his son said.
In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by daughters Sandy Stenmark, Jan Hoyt and Ann Stolfa, all of Denver; and five grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@
