Don Kortz

Kortz died Sunday evening July 25 2021 at UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital from complications of COVID-19, his nephew, Gary Kortz, said. Don Kortz, who was vaccinated, successfully fought brain lymphoma during the pandemic but could not beat COVID when he contracted the virus in late May. He was 81. Born and raised in Denver, Kortz made his mark in the business world as a lawyer and later CEO at Fuller and Company, a commercial real estate firm. During his career, he had a hand in real estate transactions that exceeded $2 billion, according to a video biography of his life on the Colorado Business Hall of Fame website. Kortz graduated from East High School and then attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where he participated in the ROTC. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, eventually earning the rank of captain. He graduated from the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law and then went to work for a Denver law firm. Through his legal work, Kortz met the president of Fuller and Company, who hired him as the firm’s general counsel. Kortz eventually became the company’s president and CEO, and chairman of the board of directors, including when the firm was bought by Cassidy Turley Colorado. Kortz also was a founder of Steele Street Bank and Trust in 2003, which later was sold to MidFirst Bank. In 1995 he stepped away from his commercial real estate firm for three years to create a nonprofit community foundation, not knowing how it would turn out but confident he could make it work. Today, Rose Community Foundation manages $322 million in assets. Kortz is survived by his wife, Mary Lou Blackledge Kortz; his daughter, Zoey Kortz; and his brother, Robert Kortz, and his family.