Denver business leader Donald Sturm dies at 92

The banker, philanthropist, early developer of Cherry Creek and Colorado Business Hall of Fame inductee Donald Sturm died Saturday. He was 92.

Sturm was born in Brooklyn on Jan. 10, 1932 and attended the City College of New York before he was drafted into the army.

He moved to Denver after his service and earned a law degree from the University of Denver. Sturm got a master’s degree in taxation from New York University.

Sturm began his career as a trial attorney for the IRS before working in Omaha, Nebraska, with construction and engineering firm Peter Kiewit Sons where he rose the ranks to become the company’s vice chairman.

The business leader returned to Denver in 1991 to focus on investing and developing. He acquired several banks across Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas to make up ANB Bank. Sturm is credited for sparking development in Cherry Creek with his redevelopment of the old Tattered Cover bookstore and building the Fillmore Plaza.

Sturm also developed The Meadows, a master-planned community in Castle Rock home to approximately 20,000 people.

Sturm was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2022.

He also took part in the effort to buy Continental Airlines out of bankruptcy in 1993, according to his Hall of Fame biography. The company restructured, where he sat on the Board of Directors for a decade, and became part of United Airlines.

“Don was known professionally for his sharp wit and sharper mind, his ability to think strategically and tactically, his negotiating skills and his personal ethics,” according to his obituary.

Sturm was an avid philanthropist and contributed as a trustee of DU. He contributed to DU’s Sturm College of Law, the Denver Museum Of Nature and Science, the Jewish Community Center of Denver, the Summit Huts Association and Arapahoe Community College.

He also founded Judaism Your Way, an inclusive Jewish community organization, after he couldn’t find a rabbi who would marry him to his non-Jewish wife. He married Susan Sturm in 1987.

Sturm’s family is encouraging donations in his memory to go to Judaism Your Way in Glendale, Colo.

“As a person, he was a devoted husband, a loving father and a steadfast friend,” according to his obituary. “He made the world brighter through his presence and he will be forever missed.”