George N. Gillett Jr.

George Nield Gillett Jr. was born on 22 October 1938 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He graduated from Lake Forest Academy in 1956, attended Amherst College, and completed a degree at Dominican College of Racine in 1961. A sports fan from childhood, he entered business through sales at Crown Zellerbach and then consulting, including McKinsey and Company, before buying into professional sports while still in his twenties.

In 1978 he bought Packerland Packing and diversified into broadcasting as Gillett Communications, assembling network affiliates in major markets and later acquiring Storer Communications television assets with heavy junk-bond financing. The debt load, Black Monday timing and early-1990s recession forced restructuring; Gillett Holdings filed Chapter 11 in July 1991. He later rebuilt meat interests through Booth Creek, Corporate Brand Foods America (sold to IBP) and Swift and Company (sold to JBS in 2007).

In 1985 Gillett acquired Vail Associates' Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts. He emphasised greeting guests on the mountain, installed high-speed detachable quads and hosted the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships when many U.S. areas avoided international races. Bankruptcy cost him the resorts in the early 1990s, after which Apollo took control and Vail later went public. He and Rose nevertheless remained in Vail, supported the Vail Valley Foundation and early childhood education, and in 2005 he entered the Colorado Snow Sports Museum Hall of Fame as a sport builder.

In January 2001 Gillett bought an 80 percent interest in the Montreal Canadiens and their arena for about $185 million, selling to the Molson brothers in 2009. He also held a stake in Evernham Motorsports that became Richard Petty Motorsports. With Tom Hicks he completed a February 2007 takeover of Liverpool F.C.; fan protests, internal conflict and bank pressure ended with a forced sale to New England Sports Ventures in October 2010. Legal fights with directors and lenders continued into 2013.

Gillett married Rose; they raised four sons and made Vail home long after ownership ended. Rose Bowl in Beaver Creek carries her name, and Chopsticks in China Bowl was renamed Gillett's Dream. He often credited Rose for their decision to stay in the valley. He died around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, aged 87, at a Denver memory care facility after Alzheimer's disease. The Vail Daily published David O. Williams's report on 23 September.

Gillett's formal schooling ran from Lake Forest Academy through Amherst College to Dominican College of Racine, Wisconsin, where he graduated in 1961. The Midwestern education fed a career that repeatedly circled back to Wisconsin meat packing even as he lived for decades in Colorado.

Gillett's working life moved through overlapping empires. After the Miami Dolphins stake and Harlem Globetrotters revival, Packerland Packing (1978) funded Gillett Communications, a leveraged television group that peaked with Storer assets and then collapsed into Chapter 11 in 1991. In 1985 he bought Vail and Beaver Creek, modernizing lifts and hosting the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships before losing control in the early-1990s restructuring. Booth Creek Ski Holdings later assembled other resorts. From 2001 to 2009 he owned a majority of the Montreal Canadiens and their arena. From 2007 to 2010 he co-owned Liverpool F.C. with Tom Hicks. He also controlled Evernham Motorsports (later Richard Petty Motorsports) for a period ending after 2010, and built large natural-meats businesses sold into larger processors including IBP and JBS.

Gillett married Rose Gillett. They made Vail their home after the 1985 resort purchase and raised four sons there: Alex, Foster, Andrew, and Geordie. Rose Bowl at Beaver Creek is named for Rose. Friends described him as an avid outdoorsman who listened to his wife's attachment to the valley. Foster Gillett appeared in Liverpool-era coverage as part of the family's involvement with the club. The couple stayed in Vail after selling Vail Associates and supported local philanthropy, including early childhood education through the Vail Valley Foundation.

In public remarks Gillett framed business around guest experience and community. Buying Vail in 1985, he told the Vail Trail he wanted to hold up a mirror and remember that the company was primarily in business for customers, with quality and service after the budget was set. He often rode lifts and thanked night-shift snowmakers. On staying in Vail he said he lived where Mrs. Gillett wanted to live, and that they loved the valley and its people. Colleagues said his marketing personality and respect for employees shaped Vail's culture in the late 1980s.

In Colorado, Gillett is credited with high-speed lifts, terrain expansion, World Championship hosting, and a customer-service culture that lifted Vail in reader rankings. Cindy Nelson, Mike Shannon, Pete Seibert Jr., and Bill Marolt later described his era as transformative for Vail, Beaver Creek, and U.S. ski racing. In Montreal he stabilized Canadiens ownership without relocating the franchise and sold back to the Molsons. In Liverpool his legacy is more contested: leveraged ownership, a failed Stanley Park stadium promise, fan protests, and a distressed sale to the Fenway Sports Group era. Meat and media deals made and lost fortunes around those public chapters. Chopsticks in Vail's China Bowl was renamed Gillett's Dream in a recent season, a local nod after the ownership years had long ended.

Gillett was inducted into the Colorado Snow Sports Museum Hall of Fame as a sport builder in 2005. In 2017 he was honored by the Racine County Sports Hall of Fame as a sports entrepreneur. Rose Bowl at Beaver Creek carries his wife's name, and local terrain naming later acknowledged his Vail years.

Liverpool's Hicks and Gillett years generated extensive British sports media, protest films such as Dear Mr Hicks, and later retrospectives including The Potemkin League and Tifo Football explainers. Canadian coverage followed his Canadiens purchase and sale. Colorado outlets tracked his Vail tenure and 2026 death. A Steadman Philippon Research Institute interview and Colorado Snowsports Museum tribute video preserve his own voice on skiing and sports medicine.

Gillett's television leverage in the late 1980s produced missed loan payments, involuntary bankruptcy petitions, and loss of control to bondholders and later Ronald Perelman. At Liverpool, fans protested debt levels and the stalled new stadium; Gillett said his family received death threats and publicly clashed with co-owner Tom Hicks. Banks forced a 2010 sale below the owners' hoped valuation, and related litigation continued for years. A Mill Financial loan tied to the Liverpool stake left him paying large interest years afterward, according to 2016 reporting. NASCAR's Richard Petty Motorsports also faced financial strain around the same period.

Gillett died around 2 p.m. on 22 September 2026 at a memory care facility in Denver after a battle with Alzheimer's disease, the Vail Daily reported. He was 87. The Montreal Canadiens confirmed his death and published condolences from owner Geoff Molson. No separate public funeral details were widely reported in the first news cycle.