By David O. Williams, Vail Daily
George Gillett Jr., the charismatic former owner of Vail Associates who opened up global markets to one of the nation’s most popular ski resorts during his tenure in the late 1980s, died Tuesday at a memory care facility in Denver after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Gillett, born Oct. 22, 1938, in Wisconsin, was 87 years old when he died around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 22.
A meat-packing and media mogul with various sports team management interests — including the Harlem Globetrotters and Miami Dolphins at one point — Gillett first bought Vail in 1985 before being forced into bankruptcy by too much debt and skyrocketing interest rates in 1991.
He is widely credited with modernizing Vail and taking it to the next level with expansions and high-speed-quad chairlifts during his brief tenure as owner, as well as spearheading Vail’s international destination growth by hosting the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships. That was when the Eurocentric ski world truly put Vail on the global ski-industry map.
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