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Steve Sander, who died on Oct. 15, 2023, was known as a legend in the Denver business community who helped shape the city’s image on the global stage.
Steve Sander with his fried of 35 years Jackie Brown-Griggs. Sander died Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023.
Steve Sander (left) pictured with long-time friend and colleague Jamie Van Leeuwen. Sander died Oct. 15, 2023.
Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, center, and Steve Sander, right. Sander died Oct. 15, 2023.
Steve Sander, who died on Oct. 15, 2023, was known as a legend in the Denver business community who helped shape the city’s image on the global stage.
Steve Sander with his fried of 35 years Jackie Brown-Griggs. Sander died Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023.
Steve Sander (left) pictured with long-time friend and colleague Jamie Van Leeuwen. Sander died Oct. 15, 2023.
Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, center, and Steve Sander, right. Sander died Oct. 15, 2023.
Comments poured in by the hundreds. He was a legend. A cherished mentor in the business world. A visionary in marketing. He was also a pillar of the civic community. A man who made a dramatic impact on the city of Denver but never asked for credit. Most of all, he was a deeply loved friend.
Those who knew Steve Sander flooded the internet this week with their memories, their grief, and their admiration for a man whose death sent shockwaves through the civic and business communities of Denver.
Sander died on Sunday at the age of 69. He began his career as a sports photojournalist in Boulder before forging his path in marketing and advertising. He went on to become Denver’s director of strategic marketing from 2008 to 2012 and served as a former board member for the Denver Sports Commission and Visit Denver, among other organizations.
He left a legacy as a man who helped shape the Mile High City’s image on the global stage — and those lives he touched.
On Wednesday, Jackie Brown-Griggs was busy making arrangements for Sander’s celebration of life. A public service will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Greek Amphitheatre in Civic Center Park. Those who attend are encouraged to wear athletic or sports teams’ brands to honor Sander’s love for sports.
Three times, Brown-Griggs caught herself starting a text to Sander when she needed someone’s number while planning his service. Losing her quirky, charming friend had not sunk in, she said.
Brown-Griggs, a public relations professional, met Sander through their field more than 35 years ago. They became instant friends. She last saw him on Friday. Sander was a famously bad hugger, she said, and she poked some fun at him for it. He decided to prove her wrong.
“He gave me the biggest hug, and just said, ‘I love you.’ And that was the last time I saw him,” she said.
His friends chuckled fondly at how the marketing genius demonstrated brand loyalty — he loved Starbucks, and Dairy Queen, and held on to his BlackBerry longer than anyone. He could be charismatically self-deprecating. He held his phone 3 inches from his face. No one quite knew why, but it was one of his beloved quirks, Brown-Griggs said.
Now, Brown-Griggs and his vast network are left with questions. In announcing his passing, Sander’s loved ones shared that he died by suicide, hoping to raise awareness for mental health needs and urging the community to support people who are struggling.
Sander is survived by his sister Miriam, and by his girlfriend Ronda Williston. Brown-Griggs encouraged support for Sander’s family, too.
His death leaves a gaping hole in Denver, she said. Sander was the thread connecting everyone in the city.
“There will never be another Sander,” Visit Denver CEO Richard Scharf said in an email.
Scharf lauded Sander as a tireless ambassador for the city. The two worked together on myriad events, such as developing new international flights, All-Star games, NCAA events, World Cup Soccer, and the Winter Olympic bids, Scharf said.
Whether someone was at the beginning of their career, or looking to switch careers, Sander was a willing and devoted adviser, Scharf said. He was well-known for mentoring young people and helping launch careers, numerous friends said.
“His generosity knew no boundaries, no problem was too small, no person not worth supporting,” Scharf said.
In a message to The Denver Gazette, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper called Sander “a great and revered person by many of the most influential people in the community.”
“He may not have been an elected official, he may not have been a CEO, but when a lot of big decisions got made, he was in the room when it happened. And many times, he was the person who made sure that the other right people were in the room when it happened,” Hickenlooper said. “Those are qualities that are very rare in any community, and we are going to miss him more than words can say.”
When Sander left his role as Denver’s marketing director, Sarah Kurz was appointed as his successor. They were shoes she could never fill, she said.
“He was just a legend in communications and marketing and in our community, and just and advocate for Denver,” she said. “He was also just a joy to be around. People just adored him. He just lit up the rooms he was in and said to everybody, ‘Love you,’ when he ended a conversation.”
The reaction to his death is a testament to his far-reaching impact, she said. In government institutions and the business community, “he was sort of seen as the godfather, who really mentored a lot of people in the field.”
For Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, celebrating Halloween will never be the same.
Lent and Sander had a years-long tradition of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters from Lent’s home. He loved seeing the costumes and making the little ones laugh, she said. Sander became a local fixture. The children of her neighborhood will miss him. Her own children lost a man who played “an active part of their lives.”
“My kids are grieving as much as I am,” she said.
Lent told her Facebook friends that “neither the tears nor the memories will stop flowing.” Loved ones have been reminiscing “about his smirk, and the twinkle in his eye,” she told The Denver Gazette. One of Sander’s talents was being “an incredible connector.” He could connect energized people with great ideas and resources.
She has known Sander for roughly two decades, but she cannot pinpoint when the two met.
“It’s just felt like he’s always been there,” she said.
Lent began working closely with him as a member of then-mayor Hickenlooper’s administration — when she was communications director and Sander was marketing director.
When the Democratic National Convention came to the city in 2008, the event “was an all hands on deck” initiative for the administration. She and Sander worked feverishly on using the opportunity “to shine the brightest of lights on everything that’s amazing about Denver and Colorado.”
Lent struggled to think of a major Denver initiative that Sander was not involved in.
“It’s hard to fathom going from his omnipresence to this profound absence, but I think his presence will live on in the people whose lives he touched and in the endless ways that he touched this city,” Lent said.
Lent said she wished Sander was here to talk about his career and the moments he was most proud of. She suspected he would say his advocacy for cycling and the bike-sharing program he helped launch in Denver, the first city-wide program of its kind in the country.
She was likely right. More than a decade ago, 5280 Magazine rounded up a playful Valentine’s Day feature highlighting the Front Range’s most eligible singles. Among them was Sander, gregariously smiling in a portrait above his Q&A.
His biggest fear was “getting old and acting like it.” He still watched reruns of the original Beverly Hills 90120. He dreamed about one day climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. He wanted to find someone who shared his passion for making the world a better place.
His biggest accomplishment, he said at the time, was helping launch Denver B-cycle — the innovative bike-sharing program that preceded today’s ridesharing apps.
And he went on to find that love in Williston, Brown-Griggs said, adding “he just adored her.”
Jamie Van Leeuwen has lived and worked in Denver for 20 years. He got his start working at Urban Peak with homeless and runaway youth. He went on to work for Hickenlooper for 15 years, and he now runs Global Livingston Institute, an organization he founded to support international development and community development.
At each stage of his career, Sander was there.
Sander joined him on one of his first trips to East Africa as he got the Institute off the ground and played a fundamental role in molding the organization’s vision. On the organization’s website is its tagline: “Listen. Think. Act.” Sander came up with it 15 years ago while on a run with Leeuwen.
“He was just a ridiculously close friend and colleague, and even today recognizing that I can’t call him and ask him for advice or an idea or how I should be thinking about something is just a huge, huge hole in my heart,” he said.
Listening, thinking and then acting was a mantra Sander personally lived by. Some of his best ideas were born from prioritizing listening to others, Leeuwen said.
“When Steve would sit at a table, he was not the person who talked the most,” he said.
No matter what job or issue he worked on, Sander brought his “unbelievably creative spirit” and sought to find joy in the work, he said. Sander embodied kindness and humanity, he said, and “truly believed in making the world a better place.”
“We all feel very numb right now because we are in a world that desperately needs people to be kind, and to laugh, and to give us hope, and Steve did all of those things,” Leeuwen said. “And two days ago, we woke up in a world where he’s not there to do that for us.
“I think for our community, the greatest, greatest thing that we can do to honor his legacy is to do that for each other.”
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