Clockwise from top left: Bill Barrett, Tom Clarke, Dana Crawford, Dick Saunders, James Leprino and Frank Day
James Leprino perfected pizza cheese.
Daniel Ritchie led the University of Denver.
And Dana Crawford saved Larimer Square.
“I realized that everything that made the city started in the 1400 block, and it was slated to be removed,” she once said. “I distinctly remember thinking I talked about this a lot, now I have to do it.”
The three are among the notable local business leaders who died in 2025.
The 10 individuals highlighted below also include a restaurateur who helped launch the craft beer boom and a local economic development leader.
University of Denver Chancellor Daniel Ritchie on Oct. 18, 2004. (Brian Brainerd/The Denver Post)
Daniel Ritchie
The University of Denver chancellor emeritus and onetime leader of major communications corporations including Westinghouse Broadcasting died in January at age 93.
When Ritchie became DU’s 16th chancellor in 1989, the future of the university was in peril. He presided over a fundraising campaign that brought in more than $400 million toward new facilities and infrastructure at DU, and personally donated his ranch in Kremmling to underwrite the matches, the sale of which brought in tens of millions of dollars to the university.
Read the full story here.
Preservationist Dana Crawford is pictured in the renovated Denver Union Station before its reopening in 2014. (Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post)
Dana Crawford
Dana Crawford, a developer and preservationist who single-handedly did more than anyone to save Denver’s historic architecture, died in January at age 93.
While raising four boys and juggling a career, her earliest and signature save was Larimer Square, which in the mid-1960s was considered a scruffy row of rowdy bars best trimmed with a bulldozer.
“Dana Crawford was one of Denver’s most important visionaries. But she was a visionary who had more than a vision — she had the ability to implement her vision,” said former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.
Read the full story here.
Dean Peterson, right, and his twin brother Dale, who owned and operated the Bull & Bush pub and eight other restaurants in the Denver metro. (Provided by David Peterson)
Dean Peterson
The surviving twin behind Bull & Bush Brewery, one of the longest-serving pubs in Denver, as well as eight other restaurants in Denver, died in May at 87.
Peterson and his brother Dale, identical twins born in Nebraska, opened Bull & Bush in Glendale in 1971.
Read the full story here.
An undated photo of James Leprino released by his company. (Courtesy Leprino)
James Leprino
James Leprino, who became a billionaire while transforming his father’s small northwest Denver grocery store into the leading supplier of pizza cheese, died in June at age 87.
The headquarters of Leprino Foods Co. spans a full city block where that store once stood in the Highland neighborhood.
Forbes estimated that Leprino was worth about $2 billion when he died. He kept a low profile. His interview with Forbes for a 2017 article surprised even him.
“It’s hard for me to believe I agreed to this,” he told the publication. “I really like to keep my privacy.”
Read the full story here.
Thomas Bailey, founder of Janus Capital, created one of the most popular mutual fund families of the 1990s. (Courtesy of family)
Thomas Bailey
Thomas Hagan Bailey, founder of Janus Capital and an ardent land conservationist, died in August at age 88.
He moved to Denver in 1969, seeking the freedom to invest more independently and aggressively than he could on Wall Street.
He named his firm Janus Capital Corp. after the Roman god of doors, gateways and beginnings, and launched the Janus Fund.
Read the full story here.
The Robinson brothers Eddie, left, and Dick outside the family dairy offices in Denver on Dec. 18, 2008. (John Leyba/The Denver Post)
Eddie Robinson
For decades, Eddie Robinson and his brother expanded a dairy business their great-grandfather started in the Denver area in 1885, while also growing their local reputations for leadership and community involvement.
He died in August at age 93.
Read the full story here.
Frank Day at Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery in Denver in 2010. Day died in August 2025 at the age of 93. (Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post)
Frank Day
Frank Day, a Boulder restaurateur who was responsible for creating several national chains and for helping to jump-start the craft beer industry in Colorado, died in August at age 93.
Day got his start in the restaurant industry in 1972 when he opened the Walrus Saloon in Boulder, which would last for 46 years as a beloved student watering hole. Four years later, he opened the first Old Chicago, a pizzeria and beer joint.
Read the full story here.
William J. “Bill” Barrett was well known in the region’s oil and gas industry. He died at his Denver home Sept. 16 at age 96. (Photo by Eric Bakke)
Bill Barrett
Through decades of working for oil and gas companies and starting a few that bore his name, William “Bill” J. Barrett always thought of himself as a wildcatter, a person who strikes out in search of the next promising play.
He died in September at age 96.
His son said his death “represents an end of an era, where the objective was to explore and find new fields.
Read the full story here.
Andy Cross on Dec. 5, 2012. (Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Tom Clark
Tom Clark, who helped guide the Denver region’s economic development through roles at several organizations in and around Denver, died in March at 75.
Clark was a founding member of the organization that became the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. And he was a go-to guy when local leaders needed advice. His wife, Donna Alengi, recalled a Thanksgiving Day when Clark spoke to then-Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, who needed the public to approve a tax that would finance a new stadium.
“You can’t wear your fur coat down on the field. It alienates the fans,” Clark told him.
Read the full story here.
Dick Saunders (Courtesy Saunders Construction)
Dick Saunders
Dick Saunders, who founded Saunders Construction in 1972, died in November at age 85, according to the company.
The University of Denver graduate built Saunders Construction into one of the state’s largest general contractors. He led the company as CEO until 2001.
