Lou Montfort

“The Fox”

WWII VETERAN, PHILANTHROPIST

REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER

Lou passed September 1, 2024, just 19 days short of his 102nd birthday.

HARRY LOUIS MONTFORT, JR. was born in Sacramento on September 20, 1922 to Harry Louis Montfort and Hazel McClure Montfort, third generation Sacramento pioneers. Henry Montfort, Lou’s great-grandfather, settled in Sacramento on July 4, 1849, during the gold rush, and was the founding member of the Pioneer Society, Wells Fargo Agent, and Tax Collector. His grandfather was Louis Clarendon Montfort. The family was very proud of their California heritage. 

Lou’s father died when Lou was only 8 years old. Harry Sr. was a Civil Engineer with the State of California and oversaw the building of roads through the Sierras and into Nevada. They resided in Curtis Park / East Sacramento, where Lou attended local schools. During the early years he worked odd jobs, including with a local grocer, Potter and Dewey, to help his mother.

His Uncle Ed Boyles Sr. became a father figure to Lou after his father died. It was Uncle Ed who introduced him to golfing, shooting and hunting with a rifle, and watching his first football game. Lou studied golf until he developed his own winning technique. At one point he held a 2 handicap. His score was on par with his age in years well into his 90’s.

Lou was in the first class to attend all four years of CK McClatchy SHS, Sacramento’s newest high school, graduating in 1940. He was an athlete, and although he loved golf, pole vaulting was his sport in high school, and he set a record which he held for a cherished period of time. After graduating from McClatchy, he earned his AA degree “with distinction” at Sacramento Jr. College in June of ’42. Lou then matriculated to UC Berkeley, where he joined Sigma Chi Fraternity. Then World War II broke out, and his education was put on hold.

He enlisted in the US Army in 1942 and reported for duty in Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he became a Rifle Instructor. His leadership talents were recognized and he was sent to Officer Candidate School in Fort Benning, Georgia. On completion of OCS, he was deployed to the European Theater where he served as the Combat Infantry Lt Platoon Commander in the highly-decorated 90th Armored Division in Germany, earning several medals himself, including the Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge. His account of meeting the defeated Germans and grateful Czechs with our Russian allies on the last day of WWII warranted an article in the May 29, 1945 edition of the Sacramento Union.

Lou remained in Germany after WWII in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, managing the Army PX and two resort hotels, and finding the time to organize building a ski hut and rope tow up on the mountain behind the camp. He also learned to ski in Germany, taught by Willie Scheffler, who also taught Gen. George Patton and other US military personnel. Scheffler eventually came to Squaw Valley to work with the US Alpine Ski Team and competitors in the Winter Olympics.

He reactivated and served as Aide-de-Camp to Gen. George Read until May 1954. After discharge from his military service, he remained in the US Army Reserves for many years, giving up a week each year for active maneuvers in Washington State, and retiring as Major.

Returning to Sacramento, Lou completed his BA in Business in 1958, and established Montfort & Co. to develop and build affordable multi-family housing in the area. Always looking toward the future, in the mid-1960’s, after having visited and researched a few of the new condominium projects that were springing up in Southern California, Lou developed and began construction of The Oaks at El Macero, 37 privately-owned homes with golf course views. Lou was Emeritus Member of The National Realtor Board for over 60 years.

Magnanimous in his nature and a natural with people, Lou the Fox’s extravagant mustache was his signature, also his penchant for hats. Curious and kind, always a great conversationalist, he held many memberships throughout his career: the Grandfather Club of Sacramento, the Sacramento Pioneers, the California Pioneers, Sigma Chi Fraternity, UC Berkeley Alumni, UCD Leadership Council, Shields Society, and Honorary Member of El Macero Country Club for over 60 years. He made a Charitable Contribution to UC Davis by donating an 82-unit apartment complex to the college.

Lou encouraged young golfers and helped them any way he could by sponsoring the Junior Golf Program at El Macero for decades. He always took time to encourage young people to develop a love of the game of golf as he had himself; many young golfers found subscriptions to Golf Magazine in their mailboxes! The El Macero Junior Duck Tournament has been renamed LOU MONTFORT JUNIOR DUCK for kids of all ages.

Lou married Yvonne Moulder in Germany and welcomed their daughter Suzanne. She and her mother returned home when the marriage ended. After Lou’s divorce, he was introduced to Shirley Anne Ayres of Sacramento by his cousin Birdie Boyles, daughter of Lou’s beloved Uncle Ed Boyles, Sr. He married Shirley, and with her daughter Pauli Anne, began his real estate business while they lived in the Land Park area. After many years, Shirley sadly passed away from cancer in 1975 shortly after they moved to El Macero. Lou then married Annie McCroskey of Austin and welcomed her daughters Jo Ann (Martin) Grantham and Janie (Johny) Thomas and her grandchildren. Years later, the marriage ended and Annie returned to Texas. 

Lou met and married his beloved wife of the next 40 years Nancy Ruth Bond of Manteca, also a successful real estate investor. They both enjoyed golf, skiing, and travel, and being grandparents to Pauli Anne’s children, Kristin (Mike) Carruth, Laurel (Roger) MacShain, and Eric (Tammie, dec.) Snyder, and great-grandchildren Chaz, Shandie (and Justin), Mason, Abigail (and Logan), Dylan, and Jacob. They also kept in contact with many cousins, including Chris Boyles David, Edgar III, and Kay Sprinkel Grace. His daughter Suzanne and her husband Ted often flew west from Florida to visit.

Tragically, Nancy was diagnosed with cancer less than three months before Lou passed and died December 8, 2024, three months after him. Her loving nephews Scott (Tina) and Steven (Hera) Dickson granted her fond wish to be interred with her parents and sister Sheila (predeceased) in Manteca. 

A private service with full military honors for family was held at Old City Cemetery in Sacramento. Lou was interred in the Montfort Family Plot alongside generations of Montforts who were part of the early and continuing history of Sacramento. 

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Eulogy for H.L. Montfort, d. 9/1/2024

Welcome to this gathering in remembrance of Lou "the Fox" Montfort. Nancy and the entire extended Montfort family are so pleased you would interrupt your busy day to attend. A few years ago, I met a young Indian speaker at a Native American Ceramic exhibit who noted that in addition to the earth, seas and sky, what we should equally appreciate is our human relationships. No such relationship is more appreciated by me than the one I had with Lou. I am Stephen Brandenburger, also known as Lou's attorney or his real estate client, or his skiing friend or his golfing buddy, or his regular lunch partner, or his very regular conversant.

As you may be aware, on September 20 Lou would have celebrated his 102nd birthday, having been born on September 20, 1924, here in Sacramento.

The Fox was a member of the first graduating class of C.K. McClatchy High School where, among other things, he excelled in pole vaulting, one of the first of his many high achievements. Just before the outbreak of WWII in 1941, Lou attended U.C. Berkeley and joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. He always wore his Sigma Chi fraternity ring and was always proud to be a Bear Backer.

When he was called up for military service, he found a home in the US Army and was originally stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, for infantry training. Exhibiting such command presence and high achievement as a rifle platoon leader and instructor, he was soon sent off to Officer Candidate School. Upon completion of his schooling, he became a Lieutenant in the Army, and he was off to War.

While overseas, Lou was highly decorated as a Combat Infantry Lt. Platoon Commander, including a Bronze Star and a Combat Infantry Badge. On the last day of WWII Lou found himself in Czechoslovakia, where he celebrated the victory with our then Russian allies.

After the war, Lou stayed on in Germany and was asked to run an R & R hotel for the Gl's in Garmisch Partenkirchen. Evidence of his Command Presence, Lou instructed the staff to give him only the best of service for if they couldn't do that he would not know if they knew how or if they had been adequately trained.

An interesting side light of Lou's military career was that when the Korean War broke out in 1952, and Lou was about to be called up again, Lou called the general under whom he had served in Germany General George Reed, to see if there was any opening allowing him to go back to Europe. He certainly did not want to head to Korea. Sure enough, he was offered a Staff Officer position. He retired from active duty and returned to Sacramento in 1954 though he continued in the reserves and ultimately retired as an Army Infantry Reserve Major.

Throughout his schooling, military and business career, Lou demonstrated a tremendous work ethic, giving his all into any project to which he committed himself. He was also deeply curious. Curious about the world and curious about his family, friends and you. He would often start conversations not by telling you what he has been doing but asking you to tell him about your business, travels, vacations and your family.

Lou loved his family, Suzanne and her Ted, and Paul Anne and her wonderful children and grandchildren. His Nancy R brought joy, balance, support, and abundant love into the last decades of his life. Having been born in Sacramento and as a member of the Montfort Family which dates back to 1849, he felt it appropriate to join the California Pioneers, the Sacramento Pioneers Association, and the Grandfathers Club of America.

He felt strongly about the value of education and that every young person should pursue learning to the fullest. In furtherance of his feelings about education, Lou was generous in financially supporting the University of California at Davis. He also helped with the educational finances of his grandchildren. After Lou's education had been interrupted by the war, he ultimately received his degree from UC Berkeley in 1958.

In Sacramento, Lou quickly immersed himself in business and civic activities. He joined an insurance firm and obtained a real estate license. Shortly after Lou had his real estate license, he heard from my father, Sheldon, had some inherited acreage in dry Clay, California in southeast comer of Sacramento County. It was said that on that property even the jackrabbits had to bring their own lunch. But, in The Fox's typically positive manner, he said to my Dad, "Sheldon, let's see if there is any market for this baren land". Over a handshake they made a deal for Lou to commence marketing the acreage. With Lou's positive attitude and good salesmanship, they were soon out of product. On a personal note, in November,1974, Lou located an investment for me and my wife known as Loch Leven Lodge, on Donner Lake. With Lou's charming mustache and twinkling eyes, we could not say No and we bought the Lodge and own it to this day.

In the mid-1950s he started to develop land. He built a good number of apartments, which he kept as investments, and condominiums which were relatively new to the Sacramento region at that time.

Lou also excelled in sporting activities. He was a most graceful snow skier, which he developed while in Europe, and became a very competitive golfer, actually shooting his age in his later years. El Macero became his golfing destination of choice, and he sponsored its Annual Youth Golf Tournament for over 50 years.

Some people come into our lives and quickly go; some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts and we're never ever the same.

Sir Harry Lauder, the Scottish humorist and singer, loved to tell about the old lamplighter of the village where he lived as a boy.

Each evening as dusk came, the old man would make his rounds with his ladder and his light. He would put the ladder against the light post, climb up and light the lamp, step back down, pick up the ladder, and proceed to the next lamp.

"After awhile," said Sir Harry "he would be down the street and out of sight. But I could always tell which way he had gone from the lamps he had lighted and the glow he left behind."

I think that the highest tribute I can give Lou Montfort is to reflect that 4'1 could always tell which way he went by the lights he left behind."

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A tribute to "Uncle Louie" from Edgar Boyles III

When I was 9 years old, "Uncle Louie" began taking me up to the Sierras to ski. My dad would rent me skis boots and poles the night before in Sacramento and I would parade up and down the hallway of our home pretending to be on snow.

Early on Saturday mornings Louie would arrive in his huge Buick with an enormous chrome grill. I would fall asleep in the wide front seat as we headed up the 2-lane road of Highway 50 into the mountains. I remember Louie at the wheel happily tuning in a Polka station on the radio while I had queasy feelings as we followed a diesel-spewing truck up the winding road.

At first, I was only allowed to try the rope tow on the bunny hill, but before long we would ascend the chairlift at the little ski area. I would follow Uncle Louie right behind his skis, and he would incant to me the mantra that still is with me today:

"Down, stem, HUP, and rotate!"

Often he would comment back to me," A little more HUP, number 3." ( I was EAB the third). Decades later he told me of the delight in my eyes when, at the end of the day, I asked, "Uncle Louie, do we have time for one more run before we go?" I remember him smiling and relenting. He had found an appropriate pupil.

I became a good skier and raced in my teenage years. I left university for many reasons during the Viet Nam war and found myself living in a tiny ski village in the French Alps. Through a friend I got a chance to go to the men's World Cup Downhill race in Wengen, Switzerland, to help carry equipment for ABC Sports, then the premier purveyor of sports television. We had to ski into the difficult camera positions along the icy downhill course in the shadow of the North face of the Eiger. It was hard and scary work. One producer took note of my mountain skills. After I returned to the United States the following year and was facing the abyss and trying to figure out my next move, my mother called from our family home to say that a certain Mr. Scott Ransom from ABC Sports in New York had found our home number and wanted me to call him. He offered me a job on an upcoming mountaineering shoot in the Grand Tetons (for $50 a day!) a few weeks hence.

Opportunities snowballed from there, and a door opened that led me to the far far reaches of this earth on remote and challenging films for the next 45 years.

Truly, I can trace back the trajectory of my life in the mountains to Uncle Louie, and the smile on his face when he said, "Sure E 3, let's take one more run."

Thank you, Louie for all you did for me.

With palms together, E3 (Edgar Boyles III)

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Remarks in Celebration of the life of Louis Montfort BIY Kay Sprinkle Grace

We called him many things: Lou, Uncle Louie, Cousin Louis, H. Renard, or "The Fox" – whatever we called him was always spoken with affection, admiration, and profound joy just being with him. He was passionate and playful yet seriously committed to his work, his family, his fun and his friends.

He was the last of my mother's generation - the "Greatest Generation" - but he always had a foot in the future and an eye on what was possible. My mother was one of Lou's 5 first cousins - and the oldest - just as I am the oldest of his surviving cousins of the next generation. It is thanks to my mother that I have the family history firmly in mind!

Lou was ever restless, carrying the imposing "adventure gene" that has possessed our family since its beginnings - and that brought us to California in 1849.

Lou's great-grandfather, Henry Montfort, came to California in 1849 and was a Wells Fargo agent - Lou provided all of us with a photo image of a bill of lading for a load of gold signed by his great-grandfather that was on the wall in the Wells Fargo Museum in San Francisco. A member of the' 49 Vigilantes, Henry Montfort - who set down the roots for our family in Sacramento - had emigrated to the US some years earlier from Ireland. Henry was married to Jane Holmes Lockwood, who was from a New York family and when Henry left for California Jane stayed behind with their two little girls, Georgina and Gussie, until he sent for them. Their pilgrimage to California a year later was nothing short of heroic: a ship to the east coast of Panama, a trek across the Isthmus by foot and mule, a ship from the west coast to San Francisco and an arduous trip to Sacramento. There, dismayed by how undeveloped it was compared to New York City, the legend is that Jane nearly left the What Cheer Hotel, turned around and went home. Fortunately, she did not - and less than a year later, Jane and Henry had a son, Lou's grandfather, who followed in his father's footsteps at Wells Fargo. He married Emma Knight, an English girl who had come to California with a mining family They had 5 children - 4 daughters and one son, who was Lou's father. Two of the daughters, Alice and Florence, had no children; Eva, my grandmother, had 3 children; and their much younger sister Helen ultimately had 2 children, one of whom was killed in World War II.

Louis was very proud of his heritage and was a member of several commemorative organizations that keep the spirit of California's early history alive.

Lou was persistently and deeply curious. Curious about the world, always, but even more curious about family and friends. Times with him were conversation-rich and guided by him. "Tell me more about your business." "How was the trip you took?" "Did you have a good audience for your talk?" "What are your plans for the future?" "How are things going?" "And whatever happened to that guy you were dating - he was your best pal. .. " He was a great listener -from my earliest memories to my last visit with him: even then, although not speaking much - his head nodded, he formed a question, his smile lifted his mustache into an additional smile, and he would grip my hand.

More than a "cousin" to me, he was always a friend - we were in fact a "half generation" apart - so he was old enough to give advice without challenge, but young enough to understand where I was coming from. His curiosity was honest - it never felt like an older relative being polite with a much younger cousin.

Our friendship ran like a thread through all the decades beginning after World War II. I was a very little girl when he returned to Sacramento after the War and lived briefly in what we called the "Old House" - our grandfather's home in Midtown. My grandfather, who had died in 1945, had been in many ways a father to Louis - Lou's father had died when he was very little but his mother - Hazel - then "dated" my grandfather for many years.

When the Korean War was looming, Louis wisely "reupped" into the Army and spent that War in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, in charge of an R&R center for the Army. He was there for a few years but when his service was done, he returned to Sacramento to settle down. Through all those years, Lou was building a very successfu l business. A natural with people, his extravagant mustache was his signature, and his wardrobe of hats was his brand. He loved big cars and drove them with authority. His skiing - well into his 80s and a bit into his 90s was hard to keep up with - I remember a wonderful trip to Vail with Lou and Nancy and Lou's first cousin, Gordon Moodie - I was the youngest in the crowd but keeping up with them was an exhausting challenge. And of course, golf was his year-round passion and he played as long as he could.

He loved his family - Su and Ted, Paul Anne and her wonderful children and grandchildren. His "Nancy R" brought joy, balance, support, and abundant love into the last decades of his life and to our extended family. And those who have gone before him - my parents, my brother, Chris and Edgar Boyles' parents, our beloved Aunt Birdie, cousin Gordon - they also treasured the time they spent with Louis: I know, because often I shared it with them.

Lou's legacy is huge and felt by so many of us. My cousin Edgar who lives in Aspen credits "Cousin Louie" with enhancing his career because Lou taught him to ski at 9 and that was the door opener for a later career for Edgar as an Emmy award winning cinematographer: he told me he was chosen for his first major job with ABC because he could ski down a mountain while using video equipment! My own son, Greg, was a fellow Sigma Chi with Lou and we would have to turn our heads when they greeted each other with the special handshake.

As I reflect on the gift Cousin Louis was in my life, the words that describe what he was and what he meant to so many of us cascade and many more could be expressed. I will just say that for me, H. Renard -- "The Fox" -- was caring, concerned, kind, smart, warm, funny and most of all - curious. That curiosity kept his mind sharp and his inquiries relevant until his life was done. He was an extraordinary man of his generation - wisely called by journalists and witnesses - The Greatest Generation! I am so very grateful that I knew him and am part of his extended family.

Thank you,

Kay Sprinkle Grace 2024

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It's hard to imagine a time when Uncle Louis was not in our lives. It could be because no one in our family was born before him, but I think it's because he was larger than life character. His wit, his class, his presence, his stories, his amazing birthdays and his WC Fields accent combined to build the epic persona known as the fox.

Like most people in this room, I was zero years old when I met him. I don't remember it that well, but I can only imagine that he hoped I would someday be big enough to play for CAL Football.

My Grandfather Edgar the 2nd, was Louis first cousin. Unfortunately Edgar passed away when I was 11. This left a spot available for a de facto Grandfather in my life. He came to birthdays, holidays and various life events. He never missed a chance to be part of our lives. He was always entertaining and regaled us with a life well lived. When my brother and I got older we were reminded of his sage advice to young men seeking love. 'There are so many tomatoes and such little time."

Uncle Louis and I became much closer when I joined the Army. It was like I became the starting QB for CAL. We talked strategy, career progression, anecdotes, everything. He opened up to me about his experiences in WW2. and asked me about Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was a big supporter of me during my Army career and always provided me with encouragement, incite and advice. I told him that if I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel I would dedicate the accomplishment to him. I am grateful that the Army announced my promotion just in time (last month). He was really proud and that meant the world to me.

My last conversation with him though was truly one to remember. It was only a couple weeks ago, and it was the best we were ever going to have... I told him that I had met someone that I was going to marry and that she was like my Nancy; someone I wanted to grow old with. I told him that we had started IVF and that we had settled on a name for our boy. The name we selected represented a man that I loved and respected and that was always a positive influence on my life. He told me that it was a great name and that he was honored by it. We chose the name Louie.

-Matt David