Ski-town judge, man of the people, Vail’s Buck Allen set to retire after 45 years on the bench

Fairness and basic human decency – two characteristics one likes to see in people from all walks of life — but especially in a small-town judge.

And of the many people I know who stood before Buck Allen in his 45 years as the municipal court judge in Vail, some of whom are pretty close to me, those were the two things about him that first jumped to mind. He’s just an incredibly nice, decent and fair guy.

Thankfully, knock on wood, I never had the “opportunity” to stand before Judge Buck (not for a lack of trying), whose sentences ranged from volunteer service to collecting cans for local food drives. But I interviewed Judge Buck, who’s retiring at the end of the month (see town press release below), several times over the years.

My late father, an Air Force Judge Advocate General turned Grand County judge turned traveling Senior Judge for the state of Colorado, was also known for his fairness and basic human decency.

And I think those characteristics need to be lauded whenever we see them in dedicated civil servants these days, because they’re in short supply in these ethically challenged times and because people like Buck Allen, Rod Slifer and my father, Wayne Williams, were all about public benefit and not their own pursuit of political power.

Speaking of, here’s what Buck had to say about former Vail Mayor Rod Slifer for the book I wrote entitled “Rod Slifer & the Spirit of Vail”, which you can find at the Bookworm in Edwards and the Colorado Ski Museum in Vail:

Buck Allen on Rod Slifer: ‘He really looked after people’

Longtime Vail Municipal Court Judge Cyrus “Buck” Allen – please, just call him Buck – first met Rod Slifer in the mid-1960s as a teenager.

“I met Rod in the summer of ’64 when my parents built a ski cabin in Buffehr Creek,” Allen says. “He and Heather, his first wife, lived in the little school house in Buffehr Creek.”

A decade or so later, Allen, whose parents owned a jewelry store in Denver frequented by the Vail pioneers before there were any such stores in Vail Village, graduated from the University of Denver law school and landed a job as a deputy DA in Colorado’s Fifth Judicial District, which included working in Eagle, Breckenridge and Georgetown courts.

Slifer was mayor in 1979 when Vail’s municipal judge at the time, Andy Gerard, a rancher and lay judge (meaning he was not a lawyer), got sick and was sent to Denver by Vail’s first doctor at the time, Tom Steinberg. When Gerard got better, the Vail Town Council decided it wanted a “court of record,” which required a lawyer, so they asked Allen to apply.

“Although, I’ll tell you, Andy had more common sense in his little finger than most people when they graduate from law school,” Allen remembers. “He was really a good guy, an old rancher. He was really colorful. Whenever he thought there would be trouble, he carried a six-gun strapped to his hip. I mean, he was something.”

“Back in ’79, when I applied for the judgeship, Rod was on the council,” says Allen, who’s still on the bench 44 years later – famous for marrying couples on the ski slopes in his younger days and skiing as much as possible with his lifetime ski pass. “But it was really neat in ’79 because I knew Rod and John Donovan and a lot of the people on the council at the time, so it was a very congenial kind of interview. Tom Steinberg was on the council too. I got the job. Temporary replacement then, they said.

“Great bunch of people, and Rod was just a stellar mayor because he was so calm and even-handed. Even when things got contentious, he was kind of a calm voice of reason,” Allen remembers, agreeing he would have made a great judge. “I’m glad he didn’t compete against me; he would’ve gotten it hands down. But he was amazing and very fair. Back in the mid-80s, when I went into meet with the council and talk about how the court was expanding and needed more hours and would talk about pay, one of the sessions Rod said, ‘Well, you know, Buck, really, rather than give you a big raise, why don’t we give you health insurance?’ I was uninsured at the time, and I was not smart enough to know what a wonderful deal that was, a tremendous benefit. So he really looked after people; he took a real concern for the employees.”

And here’s the Town of Vail’s press release on Allen retiring:

Vail Municipal Court Judge Buck Allen to Retire

After 45 years, Cyrus “Buck” Allen III, Vail’s beloved municipal court judge, has announced his retirement from the town. Known to many as “Judge Buck,” his last day on the bench will be Feb.  28. 

Allen grew up in Denver, but his ties to Vail began at a young age. He first skied Vail Mountain at age 14, during its inaugural season in 1963.  In 1964, his family built a cabin on Buffehr Creek in West Vail and drove up nearly every winter weekend throughout Allen’s high school years. One of his first summer jobs was working for the construction company that put the roof on Vail’s iconic covered bridge. 

After high school, Allen attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire for his undergraduate studies, then returned to Colorado to attend law school at the University of Denver. After law school, he served for four years as a deputy prosecutor in the Georgetown office of the Fifth Judicial District, which includes Eagle County. It was during his last year there that he was appointed as the part-time judge in Vail in 1979. 

With a docket largely comprised of incidents related to life in a resort town, Allen says the best part of the job is the ability to connect with the people who have come through his court. “It has been my pleasure and honor to serve the people of Vail,” said Allen. 

An avid skier, Allen says he is looking forward to enjoying more of what brought his family to Vail years ago. He will also continue to serve as the part-time municipal judge for the towns of Avon and Breckenridge.  

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail

David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.

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