Glenn R. Jones: cable pioneer envisions worldwide university.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: Executive Edge

IN THE 1970s, GLENN R. JONES STRUNG CABLE OVER A PICKET fence, through lilac bushes and into an abandoned mineshaft where he paid off a hermit with a bottle of whiskey for the easement.

He borrowed $400 against his white Volkswagen Beetle to purchase his first cable television system in 1967 and regularly braved mountain temperatures to plant poles in Georgetown, Leadville and Idaho Springs as the head of a company he first called Cowpoke Cable Co.

He set up his office in the Silver Queen pub and restaurant in Georgetown bought a sleeping bag as his first piece of company equipment and would bed down in his Volkswagen.

Ultimately, he would build Jones Intercable Inc. one of the 10 biggest cable operators in the U.S. and the springboard for enterprises such as Jones Entertainment Group, Mind Extension University, Jones Media Networks, Jones Cyber Solutions, Jones Knowledge Inc. and his marquee Jones International University.

"I saw cable as a business at first, knew a lot of people in the business and could see that it was headed into becoming a major industry," said Jones. "But I also saw it for its educational value and as a futurist was interested from that standpoint.

Before he bought his company, as a young lawyer in 1961 Jones learned of the promise cable held at the heels of cable pioneers Bill Daniels and Carl Williams, when he traded legal services for office space in their new company, Daniels & Associates. That was a leap up from operating out of a doughnut shop in east Denver where fresh out of the University of Colorado Law School he set up shop and met with clients.

"I ate a lot of doughnuts and drank a lot of coffee to keep the owner happy, recalls Jones.

By 1969, he had become the first cable operator to organize public limited partnerships, raising $1 billion in equity for acquisitions. In 1973, he took the company public.

All along he was educating financiers and customers alike in the...