William Van Court

William Thompson (Bill) Van Court passed away after a short illness on November 9, 2020. Bill was born on April 17, 1925 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. His parents, Robert Morris and Anne Thompson Van Court, had five children; Bill was the youngest. Bill’s siblings, Robert, Duncan, Phillip and Elizabeth, all preceded him in death. His wife of 68 years, Eleanor Louise (Ellie) Van Holland Van Court, preceded him in death in 2017. Bill is survived by children Laurie, Peter and Amy.

Bill graduated from Glen Ridge High School in 1942, but he missed the graduation ceremony after joining the United States Marine Corps. He was sent to Camp Pendleton, in San Diego, California, where he was voted Honor Man of his boot camp graduating class. Bill then joined the Marine detachment aboard the USS New Orleans CA-32. His devotion to the Marine Corps was the longest-lasting thread running through the tapestry of his entire life.

The heavy cruiser New Orleans escorted, defended and prepared landing sites for aircraft carriers throughout the South Pacific. During Bill’s deployment, the New Orleans saw action at Wake Island, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, Truk, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Philippines. Following V-J Day 1945, the New Orleans sailed with an American force to secure the Chinese/Japanese borders. Bill’s Marine detachment were the first Americans to land at Tsingtao, where they covered the internment of Japanese ships at Tsingtao, the evacuation of liberated Allied prisoners-of-war, and the troop landings in Korea and China.

Following his discharge from the Marines, Bill returned to Glen Ridge. He attended Bergen Junior College, while continuing to live with his family. Through his brother Phil, Bill met Eleanor (Ellie) Van Holland. Throughout their courtship and marriage, Bill affectionately called Ellie “Nifty.” The morning after Bill and Nifty’s wedding in January 1949, they boarded a bus for Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bill had first glimpsed the skies and architecture of New Mexico from the troop train that took him to Camp Pendleton. Ellie had never been further west than eastern Pennsylvania.

Bill attended the University of New Mexico, compliments of the G.I. Bill. He majored in sociology, but never did master the required Spanish language course. Following completion of his B.A. degree, Bill began a lifelong career in real estate. He worked first for Albuquerque home builder Edward H. Snow and then for the real estate department of the Prudential Insurance Company. Prudential transferred the young Van Court family to Denver, Colorado in 1954.

After several more years with the Prudential, Bill joined the appraisal department of Denver’s Garrett Bromfield and Company. In the mid-1960s, he started his own commercial appraisal company, Van Court & Company. He earned his professional MAI designation from the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers (AIREA) and served the organization, first in its Denver chapter and then in its national governance. Bill was President of the AIREA in 1977. Many of his closest and dearest friends came from his AIREA affiliation.

Bill continued to work as an appraiser and consultant until the early 2000s. His appraisal career included an astonishing variety of properties and experiences. Bill appraised office buildings, retail stores, shopping complexes and residential developments. But his appraisal assignments also included fresh produce stands, shale oil fields, a roller-skating rink, Native American land, nursing homes, hospices, historic sites, college dormitories, federal defense properties, an amusement park and mountain resorts. With his Van Court & Company team, Bill appraised Denver’s Larimer Square, lands under Coors Field and Denver International Airport, major highways’ rights-of-way, and the former Martin Marietta headquarters. His clients included the U.S. Forest Service, the Federal Trade Commission, the State of Colorado, the City and County of Denver and the Denver Water Board. He also served many, many private property owners, large and small.

The appraisal assignment of which Bill was most proud was the valuation of the Baca Location Number 1, a 100,000-acre Spanish land grant in central northern New Mexico. He was first retained 1980 by the property’s then-owner, Pat Dunigan, who was concerned with preserving the property. Following Mr. Dunigan’s sudden death, the property was held in estate for nearly a decade. Finally, in 2000, the Dunigan sons were able to negotiate the sale of the property to the federal government, to be jointly managed by Native American, ranching, hunting and preservation interests. Management was transferred to the U.S. Park Service in 2015. The property is now known as Valles Caldera National Preserve.

Bill Van Court was much, much more than his accomplishments. He was a gifted teacher: he was one of the AIREA’s most popular instructors and many Colorado appraisers got their professional starts under Bill’s guidance. He taught his children to always be curious and service oriented. Bill’s joy in his profession was transferred to all three children: they all have followed their hearts into work they love. He also demonstrated for us how to be generous and kind to everyone we meet.

Bill’s sense of humor was larger-than-life and unflagging. He could find the funny side of any situation and once jumped fully dressed into a swanky Hawaiian hotel’s swimming pool. Big Band music provided the soundtrack to his life and no occasion was complete without beer. Bill was a devoted football fan: he was an early Denver Broncos season ticket holder and suffered through enough losing seasons to nearly balance their three Super Bowl wins. The University of New Mexico Lobos, on the other hand, were generally consistent in disappointing Bill every year.

More than anything else, Bill was a wonderful husband and father. He gave Ellie a life she could not have imagined as a schoolgirl in Kearny, New Jersey. He was a constant presence in Laurie, Peter and Amy’s lives. He not only taught us to drive, but also how to throw a football, pour a beer, tell a funny story, and carry on through disappointment. We will miss him every day of the rest of our lives.

Bill’s life was honored at Fort Logan National Cemetery on November 25, 2020. His ashes will lie there next to Ellie’s, overlooking the southwest Denver neighborhoods they loved. A portion of Bill’s ashes will also be scattered over the Valles Caldera National Preserve in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.

The Van Court children ask that, in lieu of flowers, donations in Bill’s memory be made to Los Amigos de Valles Caldera ( https://www.losamigosdevallescaldera.org/ ) or the Marine Corps League ( https://www.mclnational.org/ ).

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