William Pelz Obituary

Pelz
William Emmanuel
Pelz
October 6, 1939
May 9, 2025

William (Will) Emmanuel Pelz was born to Agnes and Truman Pelz in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where he lived through high school. Few knew that he had spent his early age, WW II years, in an orphanage in Fort Wayne. He graduated from local Central Catholic High School with honors.
Will received a basketball scholarship to Colorado College and graduated in 1964 with a political science degree. He held multiple leadership positions with the college and his fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta, and was a member of CC's basketball and bowling teams. He also was involved in ROTC and was permanent class president of the class of 1964, planning many alumni reunions.
His ROTC training led him to two commissioned years in the US Army Artillery at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. He separated from the military in 1970, having served active and reserve duty and attaining the rank of Captain.
He and his wife Lynn, whom he met at Colorado College, returned to Will's hometown of Ft. Wayne in 1966 after his active duty. Will started his professional life with Central Soya Mixed Animal Feeds as a national ingredient purchasing agent. He always wanted to get into basketball coaching and teaching, so completed his Master's Degree in Education while at Central Soya.
In 1971, after their children were born in Indiana, Will and Lynn returned to their beloved Colorado Springs where Will continued his teaching endeavors...first with D-20 and then with D-12. He ran for the school board upon leaving the Cheyenne Mountain district. During his years in education, he also coached basketball at Cheyenne Mountain High School, was an assistant
coach at Colorado College and served as head coach at El Paso Community College (now Pikes Peak State College)...twice winning the state community college championship in the mid-70's. Students and athletes who benefitted from Will's mentoring and original expertise still remember his contributions to their lives.
After seven years in teaching, Will's entrepreneurial/creative spirit moved him to develop several businesses. Will was known as the guy who always was ahead of trends. For many years, he owned Pelz and Miller Advertising. Wendy's, one of his major accounts, honored him with the MVP National Award for "Best Promotion of the Year" by a local agency. His agency also won a variety of annual production awards for numerous clients.
Concurrently, Will started Phonafile, a business/medical record, storage and retrieval company in the late 70's, (reputed to be the first of its genre nationally), which he sold 10 years later to more actively pursue his dreams of a national TV channel in the infant cable TV world.
Shortly thereafter in the early 80', because of "buzz" in the infant cable TV industry
programming era, Will received a call to be a key presenter in NYC at the Magazine Publishers Association Seminar, entitled "How Should Magazines Participate in Cable TV Programming"?
Will had developed a concept he labeled "The Magazine Network". The concept was to produce and host 244 popular, national monthly magazine programs on a stand-alone network. And, a sister network, TradeNet, was to follow for business-category monthly newsletters and journals. After a decade or so, Will was unable to raise the requisite funds to launch.
In the 90's, Will was appointed Colorado Advertising Director for Brookhart's Building Centers.
His original marketing efforts took their new I-25/Baptist Road super store, north of Colorado Springs, to Ace Hardware Store's national status of 'Best of America'. Within a few years, Brookhart's was sold to a larger southwest regional firm.
Will developed and operated several other original concepts in the 80's and 90's...Diner's Choice/Fine Food Delivery Service, in the city's southwest area, (i.e., Uber Eats) and U Chow Now (Asian fast food) on Platte Ave. He had a dozen other concepts on the drawing board.
During this period, he accepted appointment as Sponsorship Director at Peterson Air Force Base for several years. And finally, Will's Sports Pub downtown.
Once a teacher, always a teacher. Will substitute-taught for several of the local high schools until age 79...everything from history, drama, science and math...just like his myriad of lifetime professions and challenges.
He was a member of a variety of local boards and committees, to include the CC Athletic Board, CC Alumni Committee, National Olympic Sports Festival Organizational Board, The Colorado Springs Boys Club, The Tesla Society, the Colorado Springs Task Force for Civic Augmentation, and the Broadmoor Hills HOA, etc.
Will was passionate about his family, friends, golf, sports viewing, card playing and the USA Constitution. He was one of the early members of the Country Club of Colorado where he and his family enjoyed years of recreational activities. He was an avid collector, loved vintage model cars, followed politics and avidly pursued health and fitness. He was kind, fun-loving, competitive, dedicated, patriotic and compassionate. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.
Will is survived by Lynn, his wife of 60 years, two children Marni Mitchell and Tony Pelz (Pilar) and three grandchildren, Sophia Mitchell, Regan Mitchell and Thomas Pelz. Per his wishes, Will requested no public memorial. A family celebration of life will be held at the Chapel Columbarium, Chapel of Our Savior, in the Broadmoor this summer.