Select company: firms stand many tests of time.

• Author: Limbo, Leslie
• Position: Attitude at Altitude

LIKE OUR MAGAZINE, A NUMBER of people from past issues of Colorado-Biz are still in the game. Here's a look at some of them:

The 1970s

PR IN A FLASH

What a difference a decade or three makes, Just ask media expert Gwinavere Johnston, who started her Denver-based firm JohnstonWells Public Relations 31 years ago. "When I first started in public relations, the big new thing was the Selectric typewriter," Johnston says. "We still had carbon copies.

"The speed of communication has changed how we operate. Public opinion happens now in the flash of an e-mail."

Whether by typewriter or computer, Johnston has helped clients such as PacifiCare of Colorado, Wells Fargo of Colorado, Qwest Wireless and other Colorado companies communicate their message. But it was actually an outside company that may have provided the PR veteran with her biggest challenge.

"I'll probably always think of our work for BAE Systems, the company that installed the automated luggage system at DIA, as one of our most interesting and challenging global experiences," Johnston says. "It was extraordinarily intense work over a period of two years."

DOING WELL DOING GOOD

Long-time investment counselor Harry T. Lewis Jr. is known as much for his community involvement as for his financial acumen.

In the 1970s he was a partner with Boettcher & Co., a major Denver investment firm. In the 1980s, Lewis became a senior vice president with Dam Bosworth Inc. Today he runs Lewis Investments, a private consulting firm.

And through it all, he still maintains a level of community involvement that has earned him recognition and respect.

Since 1969 when he served on the task force that helped develop RTD, Lewis has served on boards, including the Stapleton Redevelopment Foundation, Colorado Outward Bound School, and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. One of his proudest achievements was one he was doubtful of at first: the formation of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District.

"I was asked by the Denver Museum of Natural History to get involved," Lewis says. "I was very skeptical."

Despite the initial misgivings, Lewis now believes SCFD has been a tremendous boon to Denver-area culture. This year it will distribute $34.7 million in taxes collected to support metro-area arts and science.

The 1980s

ALPINE BANK RIDES HIGH

While a number of Colorado institutions were gobbled up by outsiders in the last couple of decades, several state firms such as Alpine Bank survived the onslaught. In...