Died June 3, 1939 – August 15, 2018,Greenwood Village, Colorado
College: Jonathan Edwards
Major: Economics
Graduate School: Stanford University, M.B.A., Finance, 1969
Widow: Mrs. Betty Lou Conrad
1402 East Green Willow Lane
Greenwood Village, CO 80121-1342
303-795-2561
303-548-9634 (mobile)
bconrad42@hotmail.com
Children: Mark, 1965; Greg, 1968
Grandchildren: Sam, 2004; Elizabeth, 2001; Alexis, 2001
John Conrad 79 of Greenwood Village, CO beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother passed away peacefully on August 15th. Services will be held Wednesday, August 22nd at 11am at Cherry Hills Community Church Chapel Highlands Ranch, CO.
Published in Denver Post on Aug. 21, 2018
ESSAY
It is hard to believe that, as I approach my 50th reunion year, I find myself working as a professional nature and wildlife photographer — about as far away from the business community as one can get — traveling the world from the Antarctic to the Arctic, and setting foot on each of the continents, one is struck by the fact that there is graft and corruption everywhere; it just has different names. Even the animal kingdom provides us with a lesson that we could all learn from — those who don’t work for the common good, don’t survive. Enough of the present. How did I get here?
Shortly after graduation, I married Betty, my wife of 50 years. Not long after marriage I began to fulfill my NROTC obligation by serving six years in the United States Marine Corps during the early years of the Vietnam War. I did not see combat directly, but I was heavily involved in the electronic monitoring of enemy troop movements. I was very honored to have had the opportunity to serve my country, and it is an experience that I will always cherish.
While in the Marine Corps, I had the opportunity to extend my career to 20 years by accepting graduate study at the Harvard Business School. However, since I was on the west coast, I opted to resign from the Marine Corps and attend the Stanford Business School where I majored in Finance. While at both Yale and Stanford, I had the opportunity to study under some of the brightest business and financial economists of the time, and there is no doubt that they helped shape my political and economic view of the world.
While at Stanford, our second son, Greg was born with cerebral palsy. This shaped our decision on where to locate after graduation because neither the east coast nor the west coast had advanced programs for the treatment of cerebral palsy. But Denver had a wonderful treatment facility at Children’s Hospital. I am proud to say that Greg beats me in golf, and is presently employed as a tournament coordinator for the LPGA.
My early days in Denver involved money management, but after the stock market downturn in 1970-71, I turned to underwriting of tax exempt bonds. I really enjoyed working with public bodies helping them develop their infrastructure because then, as is the case now, the folks that represented these institutions were not very sophisticated and could easiy be taken advantage of. I am pleased that in the 18 years that I worked in public finance, I never lost a client. I was a partner with Boettcher & Company until 1982, and then with Dain Bosworth from 1982 until 1990, when I retired.
Nature and wildlife photography is very rewarding in that one is able to experience the interaction between the natural world and its non-human inhabitants. It is also the doorway to the development of one’s own ideas with respect to creation, evolution, and climate change.