Rod Slifer loved to tell stories, and on Thursday, hundreds gathered at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail to hear his story in a celebration of life for the town’s first real estate agent and former mayor.

It’s a life story that would have been more predictable had the protagonist come from great wealth or esteem, but Slifer came from humble beginnings, making the story that much better. Slifer died in February after a bout with pneumonia.

Slifer witnessed every milestone of Vail’s development in his 89 years, arriving in town while the resort was being built in 1962. He previously served in the Navy and lived in Aspen, and at Thursday’s celebration, Slifer’s friend from his Navy years, Jon Reynolds, told the untold story of Slifer’s start in Vail.

After being in Aspen, “he was going back to Brighton ... to see his folks and talk about his future, and his car pooped out,” Reynolds said. Slifer met Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton, “and the legend was born from there,” Reynolds said.

Slifer went on to teach ski lessons in Vail and eventually pulled Vail’s first real estate license and started the first property management company in Vail.

Reynolds said they remained close after Reynolds moved to California, where he too became involved in real estate. The two would enjoy comparing notes on their respective markets.

“There was one time when I said, ‘Rod, the prices in Vail are incredible — I got a question to ask you.’ And he had a wicked sense of humor, so you gotta be careful. I said, ‘When you make a listing for a big house, how do you possibly price it?’ Without hesitation, he said ‘Well, I tell the guy, go and find a mirror, and look himself in the eye, and think of a number, and then raise it. And then raise it again. And when you smile, that’s too much.”

Slifer had found much success in real estate by the time he met Elizabeth “Beth” Walker Sullivan. But before she would go on to become his wife, he had to convince her to leave her life of success in Washington, D.C., and move to Vail. She was working in the Environmental Protection Agency when they met in 1979.

“Rod married up,” said the Rev. Carl Walker on Thursday. “And he knew it.”

The story of how Rod met Beth met and got married was shared by “PBS NewsHour” reporter Judy Woodruff on Thursday. Woodruff was the White House correspondent for NBC News when Rod and Beth started dating, and they attended Woodruff’s wedding, in 1980, where Beth was a bridesmaid.

“We have wedding album pictures of Beth and Rod looking adoringly at each other on the dance floor,” Woodruff said. “But alas, it did take a little for this relationship to gel. Beth was working on an MBA at the University of Chicago, headed for a big corporate career as an environmental consultant, and she wasn’t sure, as wonderful as Rod was, if she was ready to give all that up to move to this tony but tiny ski resort.”

Woodruff mentioned how the couple were members of different political parties, with Slifer a Ford Republican and Beth a Democrat appointed to her position in government by then-President Jimmy Carter.

Woodruff’s husband, fellow journalist Al Hunt, also spoke.

“The Slifers had what we in Washington, I guess, would consider a mixed marriage — a Ford Republican and Carter Democrat,” Hunt said.

Hunt said Vail “BR — Before Rod — was a sheep pasture” and now “is one of the most renowned year-round resorts in the world.”

“It would be a reach to say that that Aspen ski bum envisioned all this in 1962, but he has been a central figure for six decades,” Hunt said.

Hunt said Slifer’s friendship with President Ford was well-known. “Alan Greenspan, who was then President Ford’s chief economist, said when he and Dick Cheney and others were out here in Vail, working, struggling over budget, tax and foreign policy crisis, Jerry Ford would light up when he saw Rod Slifer,” Hunt said.

Hunt said it was Slifer’s “delicious, raw sense of humor” that made him so memorable.

Sharing memories in a closing tribute on Thursday, Slifer’s daughter, Adi, said no one could tell a story like her father.

“With his calm voice, his sense of humor, and his impeccable timing, he held an audience in the palm of his hand,” she said. “He had a personal tale for everyone he knew.”

Pete Seibert Jr., in a video segment about Slifer shown Thursday, said Slifer, during one of his real estate days, was supposed to show a client a house after a snowstorm that had occurred the night before. “It snowed over a foot, there were blue skies, it was a glorious powder day,” Seibert said. “Rod called to check with the guy to see what he wanted to do, and the guy said that he wanted to see the house. Rod said if you’d rather look at real estate than go ski this powder, you really shouldn’t buy in Vail.”