Longtime Denver businessman, lawyer and philanthropist Donald Lee Kortz died Sunday. He was 81.

Perhaps best known for his decades of work for Fuller & Co., Kortz at one time served on as many as nine boards – usually rising to chair them.

He was the founding president and CEO of Rose Community Foundation, which came from the proceeds of the sale of Rose Medical Center (which he helped broker). He also chaired the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce in 2002 and served as a board member for, among others, the Mizel Museum, the Jewish Community Center, the University of Denver Institute for Interfaith Studies and the Anti-Defamation League.

“He was a remarkable human being,” said Joe Blake, chancellor emeritus for the Colorado State University system. “He was just such a complete delight to be around. You remember his laugher and just the general sense of life is good when you were around Don Kortz.”

Bob Leino, 85, knew Kortz for more than 45 years through their work at Fuller & Co. and regarded him as a close, personal friend.

“He was a brilliant lawyer,” Leino said. “He was a great reservoir of knowledge. He knew how to put a deal together better than anyone I’ve known. He was one of the best people I’ve ever known. His integrity, goodness and kindness just shined through and through. He also had a great sense of humor.”

After serving as Captain in the U.S. Army, Kortz joined a small Denver law firm. One of its clients was Fuller & Co. He was asked to join the company as house counsel in the 1970s, and for the next 40-plus years rose to become its CEO and chairman. The company went national when it merged with Cassidy Turley, but then was acquired by DTZ and later Cushman & Wakefield, according to the Denver Business Journal.

John Fuller Sr. and his son, John Fuller Jr., restarted the company as Fuller Real Estate in 2008. Leino is a partner and senior vice president.

“This is a great loss to the Denver real estate community, and a great loss to the business community,” Leino said. “Everybody loved Don Kortz.”

Dick Robinson, former owner and founder of Robinson Dairy, said he and Kortz grew up together, as their parents knew each other more than 100 years ago. Kortz was a third-generation Coloradan.

“He was a problem solver,” Robinson said. “If any organization had a problem, he’d solve it. … He turned that Jewish Community Center around. Anything he touched, he finished – and he finished it in the right way. He was just an amazing dealmaker.”

His friends and associates said Kortz was motivated by his family, his wife Mary Lou and daughter Zoey.

“I knew he was a businessman but, to me, it seemed that his number one job was as a dad,” Zoey said in a statement.

His nephew Gary Kortz said he tries to emulate the legacy his uncle created.

“He was a person who really believed in giving to the community through his philanthropy,” Kortz said. “He had an amazing set of skills to be able to execute that. He led an unbelievable number of organizations, especially in health care. … His example of leadership is something I certainly aspire to.

“Everybody in this city benefits from what he did.”

Kortz said his uncle knew how to have fun, too. His father, Robert Kortz, and uncle had Denver Broncos season tickets since 1963.

“Those were some of my real fond memories of my dad and uncle,” Kortz said. “We got to go to all the games in those old stands when the Broncos were really bad. There was a time they were horrible. But we always went and had a great time.”

He also loved playing golf, horseback riding with Mary Lou, traveling and history.

In the last 13 years, Kortz and his four friends would travel around the country to historical sites.

“I relished every moment,” Blake said. “One of the most precious gifts I’ve ever received has been the friendship of this remarkable man.”

“He was so thoughtful and so focused on what was best for Colorado,” Blake said. “He loved this community and he loved this state. He did everything he could do for it. What a positive force for good.”

Kortz was born July 9, 1940, to Benjamin and Juliette Kortz. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and his law degree from the University of Denver College of Law.

Just a few of his awards and titles: Denver Metro Chamber’s Del Hock Lifetime Achievement Award; Chair of Children’s Hospital board; board member of National Jewish Hospital and Rose Medical Center; Chairman of Colorado Children’s Health Foundation.

Kortz was appointed by then-Gov. Bill Owens to the Task Force on Child Welfare and by then-Gov. Bill Ritter to the Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care.

Services will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at Temple Sinai, 3509 S. Glencoe St., Denver.