Schiller - Perfect Murder, Perfect Town

A billion bucks. Thats enough to make anybody celebrate.

So when Boulder-based computer distributor Access Graphics Inc. passed the $1 billion mark in 1996 revenues, it tossed a luncheon party at the Hotel Boulderado on Friday.

John Ramsey, president of Access Graphics, thanked about 300 employees at the gathering and told them it couldnt have happened without them.

Reaching the billion-dollar mark has come relatively quickly for Access, which was formed in 1989 from the merger of three companies: CAD Distributors Inc. of Boulder; CAD Sources Inc. of Piscataway, N.J.; and Advanced Products Group of Roswell, Ga.

Tom Locke, business writer
Daily Camera, December 21, 1996

Do roses know their thorns can hurt? JonBent asked me that one morning. I was the landscaper at the Ramseys home during the last two years of her life, and it was the kind of question Id learned to expect from her.

I remember how intelligent JonBent was. Thats why I never talked to her as if she were just a little kid. I spoke to her pretty much as I would to an adult, the way Im talking to you now. We would discuss evolution, the natural mutations that occur in plants, animals, even people.

So when she asked me about thorns, I told her, Theyre a roses shield. They allow roses to survive. They keep away animals who might eat them.

She would follow me all over the yard, finding something to do wherever I was working. I was happy to talk with her, and would answer her questions about anything and everything. All the topics youd call natural science seemed to interest her.

What is a year?

Thats the length of time it takes for the earth to make one trip all around the sun.

So Ive been around the sun five times?

Right. And youve almost finished your sixth trip.

I added that Id completed the journey twenty-seven times. That stopped her. So many trips, she exclaimed. Then she became lost in thought.

That same week in September, the needles were falling off the pine tree and the sap had started to drip. Why does a tree do that? she asked. I wasnt certain I knew exactly, but I tried to explainscientifically. The sun helps pull the sap up from the trunk to the leaves. Then I compared the sap to human blood, said the sap carries nourishment to the whole tree. Anyone could see she was excited to learn about these things.

The neighborhood kids would come by from time to time. JonBent seemed to socialize with them just fine. Her brother, Burke, was three years older. He almost never said a word to me. Just played by himself in the backyard, completely occupied with his own projects. Next to the sandbox and swing, in the pea gravel area, he dug a system of canals. Then he put a hose on top of the slide. The water poured down and spread perfectly throughout the elaborate waterway.

Someday youre going to be an engineer? I asked him. No, he said. Just a single wordno.

He always seemed to play alone.

Just then Patsy called from inside, Its time to start your homework. I remember thinking, Theres a mother who really cares about her children.

Burke, come in and start your homework.

OK, just a minute, Mom. It was like an old-fashioned TV show Leave It to Beaver or Father Knows Best.

While I kept the gardens well-defined and tidy, as pristine as a golf course, JonBent had her own projects. She would attach an exercise device to her ankle, and then, as it rotated several inches off the ground parallel to it, she would hop with the other leg over the cord as it swung by. Shed keep this up for long periods on the back patio. And she was very good at it. It was kind of a cool thingdemanded good reflexes and coordination. I even thought of getting one for myself.

I figured her legwork was for the pageants. I could see the muscles becoming defined in her calves. Id made a similar assumption when I saw her practicing the violin. I knew the competitions took a lot of preparation, but I never once saw her in makeup or costumes, never spotted her wearing anything but jumpers or jeans, or shorts and T-shirts.

Id heard she was Little Miss Colorado, and I asked her if she was excited about winning the title.