May Bonfils Stanton was a daughter of Frederick Bonfils, co-owner of the Denver Post. When Bonfils died in 1933 May was cut out of the will, with sister Helen inheriting everything, including the Denver Post. May was a savvy investor however, eventually purchasing a 750-acre Lakewood estate which she named Belmar. May was also generous, funding the Central City Opera company, an Ophthalmology Clinic at the University of Colorado Medical Center, a wing at the Denver Museum of Natural History, a free lunch program at St. Elizabeth’s, and the Catholic Chapel at the Air Force Academy. Later in life, May married Charles Edwin Stanton, a famed interior designer. When May passed away in 1962, Charles used her $30 million estate to create the Bonfils–Stanton Foundation, an integral supporter of Denver’s arts and culture community today.
- Courtesy of Andrea Malcomb