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One of Matt Bliss’s earliest holiday memories is of lying under his grandfather’s special Christmas tree as Lawrence “Bud” Stoecker spun the tree which was created from concentric plastic circles making reflections of light dance in a hypnotizing pattern. “At the time, I didn’t even realize my grandpa had made the tree,” Bliss recalls. “I was probably five or six years old, and I remember crawling underneath the tree and looking up, with each of my brothers on either side of me and my grandfather spinning it slightly, like this incredible kaleidoscope. Growing up, that was the most important thing for me: the vision of this tree on Christmas Eve every year and the feeling that it gave me.”
ColoradoBiz Magazine
Lawrence “Bud” Stoecker devised a Space Age substitute for the typical ornament-laden evergreen
December 10, 2020
Modern Christmas Trees are all about honoring the legacy of his late grandfather, Lawrence “Bud” Stoecker.
An aerospace engineer turned prolific builder of A-frame cabins in the Rockies, Stoecker devised a Space Age substitute for the typical ornament-laden evergreen or one of its plastic facsimiles.
His tree-shaped cones of concentric rings, bedecked with lights and baubles, were born as cardboard prototypes in the mid-1960s, then Stoecker moved to Plexiglass for the real deal for his home in Broomfield.
Stoecker passed away in 2012 after battling Alzheimer’s disease, and Bliss started a company and patented the design to highlight his grandfather’s illustrious life. Each tree features Stoecker’s signature engraved on the bottom ring. “It started out as a tribute,” Bliss says.