Al “Corky” Angelo Jr., co-owner of the Vancouver property management company founded by his father and namesake, died Saturday. He was 76.
“He was always ahead of his time. He had an entrepreneurial spirit,” said Angelo Jr.’s eldest son, Al Angelo III.
Corky Angelo, his brothers Craig and Gary Angelo, along with Al Angelo III, took over the family business after Albert C. Angelo Sr. died in 2007.
Angelo Sr. founded Al Angelo Construction Co. in 1944 to build houses for Kaiser Shipyard workers during World War II. The company’s first apartment complex, The Highlands, still stands in the Heights neighborhood. In 1962, Vancouver residents elected Angelo Sr. as mayor.
The Al Angelo Co., one of Vancouver’s largest privately held real estate companies, has for four generations shaped much of the city’s skyline. Its newest building, the Angelo Tower, developed during the pandemic, was able to outmaneuver much of COVID-19’s harm to the industry, including price increases and work delays.
The company has accumulated or built more than 1 million square feet of commercial office and retail space in Clark County, and it has real estate holdings in four states, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Arizona.
In addition to working in the family business, Corky Angelo served on the Vancouver Planning Commission, as well as other boards through the years. He was also one of the owners of the Pacific Northwest Broadcasting Corp., which sold KMUZ FM in 1995 for $3.5 million. He was a chairman for Today’s Bank in the late ’90s. He graduated from Washington State University.
In 2007, Corky Angelo and his wife, Linda, donated $1 million to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, where a plaque designates the Angelo Lobby.
Corky Angelo spent his summers at his home in Pronghorn, a golf development near Bend, Ore., and his winters at his Palm Desert, Calif., home. He told The New York Times in 2006 that he tried to golf about four times a week.
Angelo III said Corky sold the Bend home about 10 years ago, and for the past five years, has spent his time primarily living in California.
He was a huge Yankees fan, Angelo III said. One of Angelo III’s last fond memories of his father was when he, his son Albert Angelo IV and Angelo III’s brother Sheldon Angelo took Corky to the first game of the Dodgers versus Yankees World Series last year.
“Even though the Yankees lost, I’d like to think that Corky still won,” Angelo III said. “To make it happen in that short of time was a miracle.”
A week ago, Angelo III and his family made the effort to bring Corky back to his hometown of Vancouver.
“His last wish was to die in his hometown, and so the team effort made that happen,” Angelo III said. “He died peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by his two sons.”
He is survived by his wife, Linda Angelo, sons Angelo III and Sheldon Angelo, and five grandchildren.
“They say it takes a village. He was the village,” Angelo III said. “We all kind of revolved around him.”
