Willis (Bill/Will) Carpenter died peacefully at the age of 93 at his daughter's home in Denver, surrounded with love from family and friends.

Willis was a highly regarded real estate attorney who had over 60 years of legal experience and was one of the most respected real estate attorneys in Colorado. His practice focused on real estate and commercial transactions, farm and ranch sales, conservation easements, and title insurance issues.

A native of Colorado, Willis was raised on his father's cattle ranch five miles east of Hayden, Colorado. He cherished growing up on a ranch and often regaled his friends and family with stories about his many ranch-life adventures, from haying to winter feeding to cutting ice from the Yampa River. Willis was just four years old when he had his first "cowboy assignment" riding horseback on Old Granny. Reflecting on his early memories, he often shared an old cowboy song refrain:

I'm an old cowhand

From the Rio Grande,

And I learned to ride

'Fore I learned to stand

In his early years Willis attended public school in Hayden, until his family moved to Denver where he attended Morey Middle School and East High School. After high school, he made his way to the East Coast where he attended Princeton University graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude in 1951. During his undergraduate years, Willis was a member of the Princeton Tigers' crew team. After college he attended law school and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1954 with a Bachelor of Law.

Having received a Selective Service deferral to complete his law degree, Willis started to practice law, and in 1955 reported to Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. He served on active duty in Naval Intelligence from 1955 to 1958 and continued his reserve duty until his retirement with the rank of Captain in 1977.

In 1978, Willis and his law partner, Andrew (Andy) Klatskin, formed Carpenter & Klatskin, P.C where he practiced until his retirement in 2019.  Willis and Andy were joined throughout the years by several remarkable real estate attorneys, but Willis was most proud of other members of the firm including its fantastic paralegal, Holly Hoxing who co-taught with Willis for many years and Darlene Sturgis and Priscilla Kimitch who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that every aspect of the law firm functioned properly.

Willis served as the Denver Bar Association President from 1978 to 1979. He was a Director for CLE in Colorado from 1967 through 1988, chaired the CBA Real Estate Section from 1976 to 1977, and served on the CBA Board of Governors from 1975 to 1980. He was a member of the Real Estate Section's Title Standards Committee from 1980 until 2015.

Willis was the founder of POETS, an organization of real estate attorneys that he described as a group "who felt that the cross-pollination of informal discussion was beneficial to their own practice."  In July 2016, POETS held its 500 ^th meeting with roughly 220 members and a consistent wait list of others seeking to join.

Willis was a Charter Member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. He received the Award of Merit from the Denver Bar in 1993 and the Colorado Bar Association's Award of Merit in 2004. He was also the first recipient of the Richard N. Doyle CLE Award in 2002, and in 2004 the first recipient of the Real Estate Hall of Fame Award from the Colorado Real Estate Section.

Willis loved practicing real estate law and spent a great deal of his time teaching, writing, and mentoring other attorneys. His publications included the Colorado Real Estate Practice Guide and the Colorado Title Insurance Practice Guide, both published by CLE.  Willis also had a passion for teaching. He taught the Colorado Bar Refresher Property Law course from 1972 until 1981 and every fall for over 30 years taught a ten-week course on real estate practice for new attorneys. Willis spoke at numerous other events, and his annual speech at the Colorado Bar Association Real Estate Symposium was always a highlight of that event.

Outside of practicing law, Willis was an avid gardener and skilled guitar player. In the summer he could be found working in his garden, carefully cultivating over an acre of vegetables and meticulously documenting the location of each planting and the particular seeds used. One of his favorite pastimes was counting how many fresh vegetables from his garden were on the dinner table each evening.  This was a great source of pride for him.  His guitar playing started as a young boy and grew into a passion.  He and his brother Ed were always a favorite at family reunions as we all gathered to listen to them play and sing along to old cowboy songs. Some of you may have been lucky enough to even hear him sing from time-to-time, including at some of the real estate section conventions, and for those who did not, you were sure to have heard him whistle a tune here or there as he was often known to do.

In 1996 the Carpenter family donated a conservation easement on the Carpenter Ranch and the property was sold to The Nature Conservancy.  Willis was very proud of this transaction where the ranch property continued on as an operating ranch, but was also used for research and learning and was to remain open to the public, maintaining his father's tradition of permitting access to the property's wildlife, native vegetation, and the Yampa River.

He is survived by his significant other Barbara N. Shecter, six children; Catherine S. Carpenter, Charles R. Carpenter (Nikki Carpenter), Marian E. Lyons, Carol R. Smith (Erik Smith), Stacy A. Carpenter (Justin J. Prochnow), Kendra S. Carpenter (Brian Binge), eight grandchildren; Steven J. Carpenter, Patrick A. Carpenter, Kyle W. Smith, Nicholas E. Smith, Jordan L. Prochnow, Jackson I. Prochnow, Max M. Binge, Cash F. Binge, 8 nieces and nephews, 28 great nieces and nephews. He is predeceased by his brother Edward F. Carpenter (2009) and sister Rosamond Carpenter Garcia (2009).

Celebration of life to be held Sunday, June 5, 2022, 1:30 p.m. at History Colorado Center; 1200 Broadway, Denver, CO 80203.

In lieu of flowers, family requests donations be made to the Colorado Symphony , History Colorado , or a charity of your choice.