In memoriam: Wally SaBell Email
Written by ALCC   
Thursday, July 08, 2021 12:00 AM

It is with sadness that we share the news of the passing of Wallace “Wally” SaBell, a founding member of Landscape Contractors of Colorado, now Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC). He was an original member of a team that formed with the goals of raising the level professionalism in the landscape industry, improving the image of the industry, and educating peers.

SaBell served as president of ALCC 1969-1970 and was instrumental in its development. He helped organize the group’s first major trade show participation. Along with Jim Wagner, SaBell proposed and established the association’s awards program, then known as the Environmental Improvement Awards. He also helped preserve the organization’s history, holding the position of Chair of the Scrapbook Committee in 1980. SaBell’s generous loan helped ALCC acquire Colorado Green magazine and continue its publication when the Landscape Industry Council, the magazine’s original publishing organization, dissolved.

But SaBell’s influence was not limited to the Colorado landscape industry. He served as president of Associated Landscape Contractors of America (now the National Association of Landscape Professionals) in 1980 and was active with the national organization.

He did all this, of course, while running his own successful companies. In 1948, just one year after graduating high school, he began SaBell’s Hillside Gardens, the start of a career that spanned more than six decades. For that career and his service to the landscape industry he earned ALCC’s Bob Cannon Lifetime Achievement Award in 1979—the second-ever recipient of the award.

SaBell is survived by his wife of 70 years, Shirley; their children, Sam, Connie and Nick; 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Services will be held next week, for those who wish to gather and remember him:

Viewing
Date: Monday, July 12
Time: 10:15 AM
Location: Red Rocks Baptist Church, 14711 W Morrison Rd, Morrison, CO 80465

Funeral service
Date: Monday, July 12 
Time: 11:00 AM

Location: Red Rocks Baptist Church, 14711 W Morrison Rd, Morrison, CO 80465

A private family committal service will be held at Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery