Karl Mehlmann always wanted to manage Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel, and eventually he did.
Mehlmann, who started at the bottom of the ladder and worked his way up to president and general manager of the historic downtown hotel, died Thursday at a care center. He was 91.
A service is planned for 10 a.m. Thursday at Olinger Chapel Hill Mortuary, 6601 S. Colorado Blvd. in Littleton.
Mehlmann “was a true people person” said his daughter, Kathy Mehlmann of Denver. He expected the staff to be polite and helpful to all guests, whether they were movie stars or those not so famous.
“He treated the staff with respect and told them that they were more important to the public than he was because they came in contact more with guests,” said Kathy Mehlmann.
“He walked the hotel property two or three times a day and knew every employee by name,” said his son, Greg Mehlmann of Centennial.
The Brown Palace has hosted many presidents, as well as the late King Hussein of Jordan, the Beatles, Carol Channing, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Glenn Miller.
Once, the Mehlmanns were invited by then-President Dwight Eisenhower to a White House dinner, but Jean Mehlmann, Karl Mehlmann’s wife, was hesitant, said Greg Mehlmann.
The couple agreed to go because the White House aide who called them said the only excuse for not attending “was a death in the family. You don’t want that to happen.”
Bill Sageser, who later managed the Tamarron Resort near Durango, said Mehlmann “was the best boss I ever had. He taught me to earn the respect of the employees.”
If an employee were rude to someone, Mehlmann called the person into his office and said “that’s not the way we do things around here,” Sageser said. “He’d give a person a second chance, and maybe a third, if the person had improved.”
Karl W. Mehlmann was born Oct. 27, 1919, in North Platte, Neb. He came to Denver in 1945 to attend the Brown Palace’s management-trainee program. He had several jobs — room clerk cashier, night auditor, steward, reservations manager — before becoming president and general manager, a job his family said he had wanted from the time he was young.
He married Jean Manor, a payroll clerk at the Brown, on Nov. 22, 1947. She died in 1999.
When Karl Mehlmann was named resident manager, he and his family moved into a suite of rooms at the hotel, where they lived until 1976.
In 1978, the Colorado Wyoming Hotel and Motel Association set up a scholarship in his name to aid students in the hospitality industry.
In addition to his son and daughter, he is survived by two grandsons and two step-grandsons.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
