Bill Malone could blend into a crowd with the best of them.
The fewer people who knew who he was, the better he was doing his job. With a background of 27 years of service in the FBI, Malone was a perfect fit when it came to security work for Denver-area sports ventures from the NFL and the Broncos to the NBA and the Nuggets to The International golf tournament.
As with most good investigators, Malone kept his work to himself.
“Bill was a private man,” said Connie Malone, Bill’s wife. “He loved the teams and he loved the players, but he left his work at the office.”
Malone, 80, died Friday of complications from cancer. His funeral service is today at 11:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 6853 S. Prince St. in Littleton.
“I worked with him for years and I didn’t know how old he was until I read it in his obituary,” said Bob Nelson, who worked with Malone in the FBI as well in security in the field of sports.
“Bill worked on organized crime with the bureau,” Nelson added. “He was a very good investigator, with contacts all over the country.”
Nelson noted that much of Malone’s security work in sports was watching for people who weren’t welcome, such as known gamblers and people connected to drugs.
“He was a huge sports fan,” said his son, Pete Malone. “Baseball was his true love, but he also had a passion for the University of Colorado and Mullen High School. He had a lot of friends and he put everybody at ease. That’s what made him a good investigator.”
Pete Malone noted that he learned the most about the details of his father’s work when he spoke to his class at Mullen.
Bill Malone arrived in Denver in the late 1950s from Los Angeles. He still was with the FBI. He continued in his security work into the 2000s.
“Pretty much everyone in the sports field here knew Bill Malone,” Nelson said. “He had a comforting style. If you saw him at a sports event, you knew everything was in good hands.”
In addition to his wife and son, Malone is survived by daughters Amanda, Shelley, Tracy and Seana.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
