Alpine Lumber Co. co-founder Jim Kurtz built an employee-owned business empire spanning 13 lumber yards in Colorado and New Mexico on a foundation of tough lessons learned as a boy working for his dad at Independent Lumber in Grand Junction.
“He had to start with the most menial tasks and work his way up. And his father always paid him less than other employees, so as not to give the impression of favoritism,” said his son-in-law, Joe Rassenfoss. “While Jim never liked that, it impressed on him the significance of every job in the yard and how important it was to acknowledge everyone’s contribution.”
Kurtz died Dec. 3 after a heart attack. He was 88.
Funeral services are set for 11 a.m. Dec. 21 at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1350 Washington St. in Denver.
James Biggs Kurtz was born in Grand Junction and attended Phillips Academy at Andover. After graduating in 1950 from Yale University, where he was in the Navy ROTC program, he served three years in the U.S. Navy. He then returned to the Western Slope, where he ran Independent Lumber in Montrose (and still was paid less than other employees). In 1956, he began to work again in the Grand Junction lumber yard. He was president and director of the company until 1978, when Independent Lumber was sold to Boise Cascade.
He had signed a five-year noncompete agreement, and the first year of his hiatus, he joined the Denver Zoo Foundation’s board of trustees. He was board president in 1993, the year the ambitious Tropical Discovery exhibit opened.
The next year, he was named an honorary life trustee — an honor that has been bestowed on only 11 people during the 97-year history of the zoo. He remained a member of the executive committee until 2015.
Katie Philpott Schoelzel, a past board chairwoman and current member of the executive committee, said Kurtz brought extraordinary business and management skills to the zoo and for 37 years shared freely his time and expertise.
“When you have a big board, people might have different motivations. He was clearly there to roll up his sleeves, dig in and make the Denver Zoo successful,” Schoelzel said. “I don’t think it dawned on him that he wouldn’t be doing all of these things while he was busy building a business and raising a family. We were so fortunate to have him as part of the zoo family. He really will be missed — personally and from an institutional perspective.”
In 1983, after his noncompete agreement expired, Kurtz and his sister, Francy Lundberg, and his brother, Bill Kurtz, went into business together, launching Alpine Lumber from a small yard on South Santa Fe Drive.
Six years in, as the family was doing succession and estate planning, the company’s auditors and bankers recommended an employee stock-ownership plan as an exit strategy.
Alpine was one of the first companies in Colorado to begin transferring ownership to its employees, who would be rewarded beyond their pay for the performance of the lumber yard.
“I don’t know that we really understood what was going on,” said Kip Oram, who was the company general manager at the time and now is Alpine’s board chairman.
But it was a successful bet. Alpine thrived as more employees got a bigger ownership stake, growing to include 13 builder-oriented lumber yards in Colorado and northern New Mexico, three truss shops, three millwork factories, a pre-built stair shop, the FastFrame engineered wood center and Rocky Mountain Reload, a rail-serviced material handling unit.
In the process, Alpine hired and retained top-flight employees, some of whom worked decades as truck drivers and forklift operators for no more than $10 an hour but retired “well on the road” to being millionaires, Oram said.
The Kurtzes “pioneered ESOPs in Colorado. And I think they did it for the right reasons. Some ESOPs were just trying to get the money out and some were questionable. You have to have strong leadership and they were our directors through the very end.”
Jim Kurtz was a tough boss at the beginning, Oram said. “A good guy and fair, but all business. But as we went on and became more successful, he became the biggest supporter you could ever have. He was so proud of what we were doing.”
Kurtz remained an Alpine director until earlier this year.
“Jim Kurtz deserves a lot of credit,” Oram said. “He stayed very close to us. He was always there with advice and with his experience.”
Kurtz is survived by his brother; his wife, Katharine “Tinka” Cosgriff Kurtz; their daughters, Katharine Dawson Kurtz, Caroline Kurtz Rassenfoss, both of Denver, and Sarah Cosgriff Kurtz of Oakland, Calif.; and three grandchildren, Mary, James and Joe Rassenfoss, all of Denver. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, and a son, James B. Kurtz.
Instead of flowers, the family recommends donations to organizations he supported, including the Denver Zoo, the Aspen Music Festival and Kent Denver School.
