Edward L Gaylord

Edward L. Gaylord, owner of Colorado Springs' Broadmoor Hotel and former owner of Colorado's Greenland Ranch, died April 27 2003 of complications from cancer. Gaylord, 83, lived in Oklahoma City, Okla. The Oklahoman also once owned 50 percent of the Denver Business Journal's parent company, Charlotte, N.C.-based American City Business Journals Inc., which was formerly publicly traded. Gaylord sold his ACBJ interest in 1995. The Broadmoor's parent is Oklahoma Publishing Co., or OPUBCO, of which Gaylord was chairman and CEO, and no changes in the hotel's ownership are expected with Gaylord's death, according to Broadmoor executives. Edward L. Gaylord's daughter, Christy Gaylord Everest, took over as president of OPUBCO in December of last year. Early this year, Gaylord and Everest dismissed rumors OPUBCO, including the Broadmoor, were for sale. At the family company, Everest took over the presidency from her brother, E.K. Gaylord II, who stepped down after eight years to focus on his interests in thoroughbred racing and moviemaking. Through Gaylord Films, E.K. Gaylord II produced movies such as "White Oleander" and "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." Everest's sisters, Mary Gaylord McClean and Louise G. Bennett, are OPUBCO's vice president and secretary, respectively. The Gaylords have also been active philanthropically in Colorado Springs, supporting the World Arena sports venue and Colorado College. OPUBCO and Gaylord Entertainment Co., which owns the Opryland complex in Nashville, are the Gaylords' principle business interests. Purchased in 1983 for $240 million, the complex included the massive Opryland Hotel, the Nashville Network and Country Music Television. Both networks were later sold. OPUBCO and Gaylord Entertainment are worth roughly $2.5 billion. In 2002, Edward L. Gaylord ranked No. 100 on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, with $1.8 billion in worth. OPUBCO bought the posh, five-star Broadmoor hotel, built as a casino in 1891, in 1988. Located at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain, the hotel now has three golf courses, a spa and a tennis club. The company sold the 21,000-acre Greenland Ranch, located north of Colorado Springs, in 2001 to Great Outdoors Colorado, Douglas County and Denver telecom mogul John Malone. Edward L. Gaylord took over the multibillion-dollar family business only after his father, Edward King Gaylord, died in 1974 at age 101. Edward L. Gaylord was in his mid-50s at the time. The father built OPUBCO into a radio, cable, TV and hotel empire and Oklahoma City's Oklahoman into a nationally respected newspaper. The younger Gaylord made the Oklahoman much more profitable, but at the cost of quality, according to critics such as the Columbia Journalism Review. In 1999, the Review named the Oklahoman the Worst Newspaper in America, largely because of shoddy reporting and Gaylord's blatant use of the paper to further his own agendas. In 1997, readers of the Gazette, an Oklahoma City alternative paper, awarded Gaylord second place in its "Best Local Villain" contest. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh won first place.