The fact that a record crowd of movers, shakers and policymakers who were prepared to part with some big money at the Colorado State Fair wasn’t the only big news to report from the Denver Rustlers’ 42nd annual brunch and road trip to Pueblo.
Today’s gathering at Shanahan’s Steakhouse also was the occasion for Stanton Dodge, chief legal officer at DraftKings and a member of the National Western Stock Show board of directors, to make the initial public announcement that Denver Rustlers co-founder Larry Mizel will be the 2027 Citizen of the West. He will accept the award at a dinner to be held on Jan. 11.
Mizel is the founder and former president, chief executive officer and executive chairman of MDC Holdings, the parent company of Richmond American Homes. The company was sold to Sekisui House, a homebuilder based in Japan, for $4.4 billion in 2024, at which point he and longtime colleague David Mandarich stepped down…