Industry News
The co-founder of Keystone Resort, Colorado, Bill Bergman died on Monday morning, December 11, 2023, aged 99. Bergman and his wife Jane co-founded Keystone together with Max and Edna Dercum in 1970. Bergman was the first president of Keystone Resort and Bergman Bowl and Bergy’s Glad are named in his honor.
Co-founder Max Dercum had long dreamed of creating a ski resort in the area and had even started drawing up plans and created a paper-mâché model of the envisaged resort. After discussing this dream in the winter of 1968 with Bill Bergman, a corporate lawyer from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who had a cabin at Arapahoe Basin and was thus familiar with the area, the two couples decided to go ahead and turn the dream into reality. While Dercum was responsible for the design of the resort, Bergman secured the financing, and Keystone International opened in November 1970.
In 1973 Bergman stepped back as president and hired Bob Maynard to manage the resort. The resort was sold in 1974 to Ralston Purina and in 1997 was acquired by Vail Resorts. Nevertheless, Bergman left an indelible mark on Keystone and
This season, the new Bergman Express Lift is slated to open, giving lift access to the Bergman Bowl, which previously was only accessible by uphilling. Bill got to see the project under construction this fall but unfortunately never got to see it in service.
Bill is survived by the pair’s two children, Bill “the younger” Bergman and Lolly Bergman Dykstra. His wife Jane died on September 27, 2015, aged 91, flying over their beloved Keystone Resort in a Flight For Life helicopter on the way to Denver hospital. They had been married for 68 years.
