Bud Klien - Kirkwood,Calif.lost two founders this summer

Kirkwood, Calif.lost two founders this summer.

Bud Klein, 83, died May 5 inStockton, Calif. Klein was a football and baseball star at University of the Pacific and Stanford. In 1950, because his father had had a heart attack, Klein declined a minor-league berth with a Boston Red Sox farm team and joined the family business, a brokerage for farm products inStockton. Over the years, in partnership with his brother and then with his sons, Klein quietly created a financial empire based largely on beans and grapes. The family eventually controlled a dozen wineries. The family endowed baseball fields at both University of the Pacific and Stanford.

Beginning in 1967, Klein worked with the Forest Service (and negotiated with environmental groups) to engineer the opening of Kirkwood Ski Resort in 1972.