FILLED WITH PASSION & DETERMINATION
the cobbs have a secret

Sue and Chuck Cobb’s lives read like characters in bestselling novels. Their many life’s scenarios could easily fit into one of John Grisham’s legal suspense novels, Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt espionage, extreme adventure thrillers or even Robert Ludlum’s Bourne Supremacy series that depict high-level connections in the U.S. Government. The difference, of course, is that their lives and characters are real, not fictional. For nearly 40 years the Cobbs have added stupendous achievements to their résumés. While poring over Chuck’s résumé you’d find such things as a Bachelors and MBA from Stanford, U.S. Navy officer, Olympic athlete, CEO of large conglomerates, Under Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration, U.S. Ambassador to Iceland during the Bush Administration, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami and member of the Board of Directors for the Walt Disney Corporation. Wait. It doesn’t stop there. He is also a shrewd investor with worldwide real estate investments in Florida, California, Europe and Colorado. Cobb holds interests in the Kirkwood Ski Resort and is one of the behind-the-scenes principals of the Telluride Ski & Golf Company. Sue’s résumé adds legal and adventure twists to their vast portfolio. Upon graduating from Stanford University where she met Chuck, the couple married and brought two boys into the world, Toby and Christian. While rearing their children, she taught school and pursued her interests of mountain climbing, skiing and tennis as well as served on many prestigious boards such as the Federal Reserve Board’s Miami branch, Goodwill Industries, United Way, The Explorer’s Club, American Alpine Club, the Telluride Mountain Film Festival and more. Mrs. Cobb went on mountain climbing expeditions throughout the world, sometimes all by herself in the wilds of Africa or with world-renowned climbers on many different continents. Sue obtained national ranking in the sports of skiing and tennis while in her 30s. When the child-rearing years came to a close, Sue, at 38-years-old, enrolled in the University of Miami’s law school, became a lawyer, then partnered in a highly successful firm in Miami. She is currently admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court, the State of Florida, the State of Colorado and the District of Columbia. At the time of the interview, Sue was managing Florida’s $2 billion lottery of which she proudly notes, "$800 million of profits is directed toward education." She was temporarily posted to this assignment under her good friend, the governor, Jeb Bush’s, beckoning.

As we started talking to Sue and Chuck Cobb over an apr`es-ski drink, I came to realize that probably few people in the world would out-surpass this couple’s achievements either individually or as partners in life. Names like Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Eishner, Michael Jordan and few others would be among the big-leaguers who could light a match to the Cobbs’ life’s work. What makes the Cobbs different from the names listed above or others who have achieved household recognition, is that the Cobbs’ talents and range of expertise is hugely diverse. The Cobbs have clout in the financial arena, the political, legal and foreign-affairs worlds, mountaineering, skiing and tennis spheres and more. Fact of the matter is, there is hardly a facet of life the Cobbs haven’t excelled in. Except, perhaps, the expansion of time. It’s in their very spirits to excel at everything they take on. As their long-time friend, Edward T. Foote II, President of the University in Miami, stated, "They pack a lot of life into their time. It’s part of their charm."

Chuck’s incredibly successful business career started in 1962 with an investment and research analysis firm named Dodge & Cox out of San Francisco. Within two years, Chuck left them to become president of Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical, real estate operations. Primed and having a proven track record as a corporate chieftain, Cobb took the opportunity to become the CEO of the Arvida Corporation, one of the largest real estate development companies in Florida. He then became Chief Operating Officer of its parent company, Penn Central Corporation, which put him in charge of 40,000 employees and a couple dozen subsidiary companies. Like cream, Chuck had risen to the very top, until....

He became privy to the fact that fellow board members were secretly trying to sell Arvida to another conglomerate. He and long-time colleague, John Temple, had to move quickly to counter the offer. Having gone to school at Stanford with the billionaire Bass brothers, Chuck called them and immediately chartered a plane to Fort Worth, Texas, to hammer out a deal with them being major investors. By business hours the next morning, Cobb and his cohort Temple, sent shock waves through the investment community by offering over $300 million for Arvida.

Within a year, Cobb and Temple sold their holdings to none other than the Walt Disney Corporation for a handsome profit. Cobb was appointed to the Disney’s board of directors and was instrumental in redesigning Walt Disney World’s master plan. He created an elite team who put together plans for state-of-the-art parks, research and shopping centers and a plethora of residential dwellings and recreational centers.

While all this was happening in Chuck’s business life, a lot had been going on on the homefront. For one, Sue and Chuck had become proud parents of two MBA graduates. By the 80s, their sons were following in their footsteps proving themselves in academia and athletics. Sue and Chuck had done them well. Another thing happening was that a "quest for an alternative to Aspen" was underway. Sue, in particular, is an avid skier. And, though the Cobb family had been vacationing in Aspen for many years, they were beginning to feel its social offerings were, in fact, keeping them too busy, and pulling them away from their kids, which has always been a major focus in their lives. So, in 1980, after years of visiting a variety of resorts, one of Chuck’s fraternity brothers invited them to Telluride.

"The person who did the most to bring us here was Dick Bingham. We both had been presidents of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity at Stanford. He likes to say the fraternity did fine until I took it over. We went into the Navy together, then we went into the venture capital business together, we were in New York together and now we both live in Telluride part time." In 1980, Dick said, " I know you guys. You would love Telluride."

The day the Cobbs arrived in Telluride was white-out conditions. They skied with Ron and Joyce Allred, then sole owners of Telluride’s Ski Resort. Chuck said, "Ron was really distraught because the weather was so bad and we could not see anything. Everywhere they took us, the clouds draped the magnificent views. Ron said, 'You really have got to come back and see Telluride. This place is really special...You might even find a home here.’"

Unbeknownst to Ron when he made that statement, in the hour the Cobbs were apart from the Allreds, they had already bought a Graysill unit, near Chairlift 7. They could simply tell the karma was right.

In 1985, Sue purchased and began developing a premium plot of land called RiverWatch. It has eight luxury homes on two acres and offers Sue unobstructed views, river frontage and ski-in/skiout access which is seemingly vital to her existence in the mountains. During the same timeframe, the Cobbs also purchased and renovated the historic railroad depot which was originally built in 1895. They liked the locale, density and the fact that it allowed them control over the views in their RiverWatch project. During the renovation, such things of prosperity as railroad tickets, old benches and other items of the era were found. There was no foundation, the 100- year-old wood was rotten as heck and they had to contend with Telluride’s Historic Review Committee guideposts. In Chuck’s words, "We had a tar baby to clean up." All in all, the depot proved to be a fascinating project for the Cobbs. After many years, they sold it to Jim Lue who now leases it to Harmon’s, one of Telluride’s premier restaurants.

In 1988, People Magazine featured Sue just before she attempted to climb Mt. Everest, the world’s highest mountain. They said, "An athlete all her life, she took up competitive skiing at 34. She was competing in national amateur events for skiers over 25 years - and winning them - within one year of her first racing lesson." Having always been drawn to high places and ones that give you the latitude to put on boards and jet down some vertical, Sue continued her high-country adventures around the world without reckoning. She’s made major technical climbs in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America. Somewhere down the line, Sue will probably be entered into Guiness Book of World Records for the only women in the world to climb the highest peak on every continent.

Joyce Allred, who has become a very dear friend to the Cobbs over the years, said, "We tried to talk her out of climbing Everest, but she was determined."

Sue joined an elite force of mountaineers out of Jackson Hole called the Cowboys. She ran three to six miles a day, weight trained and occasionally jet-setted to remote parts of the planet that would give her the altitude and terrain she needed to train for the assent up "Chomolungma," which in Tibetan means, "Goddess Mother of the World." To the rest of us it means, 29,028 feet above sea level. To date, only a handful of women have made it the the 26,000-foot mark, just 900 meters from the summit. That means, out of our planet’s nearly six billion people, Sue ranks in the one-billionth percentile of those who have been privy to see the top-of-the-world.....that’s not including her other mountaineering escapades, like her assent of Aconcagua in South America, Kilimanjaro in Africa and McKinley in Alaska and more.

In reading her book - oh, she’s an author too - The Edge of Everest, one will find out that Sue isn’t a braggart; she’s a realist. She has a common- sense approach toward her endeavors, but she sets her standards very high. You’ll also find in reading about her experience on Everest, that it is her family that gives her hope, strength and a will of steel. Just thinking about her boys and husband, tended to keep her focused on matters at hand; like navigating through Communist China, crossing seemingly uncrossable terrain, walking, then climbing up, up, up and then doing it all over again with 60 pounds on her back. And then, of course, the final death-defying assent. Her courage and sense of adventure is undauntingly incredible. Her knack and wisdom in knowing that not even she, could overcome the blasphemy of nature’s wrath is acute and proved to save her life. A life that she very much likes living.

As you can well see, the Cobbs’ lives pulsate with a constant rhythm of adventure, intrigue and high-level business dealings. They thrive by being in the heat of it all. Chuck was once quoted in the Miami Herald for saying, "People who stay in their comfort zones will bore themselves to death." And so, from this statement, you may ascertain that the Cobbs always aim beyond their comfort zones. They reach for the stars or, at least, the highest places on earth. In reaching, they apply an extraordinary amount of discipline, ingenuity and determination. They know when to call a spade a spade and they know "the sky’s the limit," if you give it all you’ve got.

By serving in high-powered positions in the United State’s government, scuba-diving in shark infested waters nearly every place on the planet or taking Wall Street on a little ride, the Cobbs live life like there is no tomorrow. That’s their secret and it’s made them privy to many unforgettable events. It’s created a life for them that makes fictional characters in novels look like couch potatoes.