People

: J. L. Hines

: J. M. Bell

: J. Michael Brown; From the article: "Cycling icon J. Michael Brown dies:The greatest joys of my life, basically that guy helped create" By Katie Klingsporn (Oct. 29, 2011): "J. Michael Brown, a Telluride original who tirelessly promoted cycling in the box canyon for decades and peddled outdoor gear to scores of residents and visitors over the years, passed away on Thursday at his apartment in Shandoka. He was 62. The cause of death is still pending investigation, autopsy and toxicology, according to San Miguel County Coroner Emil Sante. Brown suffered a head injury when he crashed his bicycle earlier this summer, but it was unknown if that injury was related to his death. The news of Brown’s death sent waves of shock and sadness through the community on Friday, evidence of how deeply ingrained he was here. Everybody, it seemed, knew JMB. “He touched a lot of people,” said Ken Johnson, a friend of 20 years. Johnson said Brown had a “great sense of humor, always had a smile. He was a very giving guy.” He was an extroverted character who shaped the region’s cycling culture and its outdoor retail history. He brought bike races to the box canyon and put jerseys on budding local riders who went on to become pros — jumpstarting their careers. He was a talented skier and cyclist who founded Olympic Sports in the early ‘70s (it’s now Telluride Sports) and later Paragon, which he ran for 25 years. He outfitted generations of athletes with skis or the best bikes he could get them. Friends describe him as generous to a fault. “The greatest joys of my life, basically that guy helped create,” said Pete Dahle, a local cyclist whose bike racing career Brown helped kickstart. Dahle met Brown in the ‘90s when he was new in town, a dishwasher who lived in the woods. As soon as Dahle showed an interest and proclivity toward bike racing, Brown — who ran the coolest, most authentic shop in town, Dahle said — took him under his wing. Brown set Dahle up with a sweet bike, sent him to races and paid his entry fees those first few years. And since then, he was always there to support Dahle. “I just owe him so much for that. Bike racing has given me so much,” Dahle said. “I was so proud and honored to wear his jersey … I wish he knew how important he was to me.” Brown spent most of his life in Colorado. He was born and raised in Boulder and went to high school in Montrose. He attended the University of Colorado in Boulder and the University of New Mexico. He worked in retail since he was 19, and in Telluride since 1972. Soon after moving here, he opened Olympic Sports. He went on to found Paragon with partner Ned Mulford in 1985 and continued to run it for 25 years. In 1990, when he and a couple other locals qualified for the world mountain bike championships, he created a Paragon bike team. That team went on to become a Telluride institution, its purple and pink jerseys worn by several locals who went on to become professionals. People like Dahle, Walker Ferguson and Pete and Carl Swenson. Paragon was the very first sponsor of Pete Swenson, who went on to race professionally for 10 years. “He was honestly one of those guys who changed my life,” Swenson said. “He came to me and said: What do you need to go bike racing? He helped me with equipment, he helped me try to turn pro. “He was totally manic in his own sweet way … but he definitely changed my life in a very positive way.” Brown sold out of Paragon in August 2008, then returned last spring with Life Cycles, a year-round bike shop he launched with James Colt. Travis Young is the head bike mechanic at Life Cycles. He met Brown shortly after moving to Telluride in 1992. Brown sold him his first mountain bike in town. “I always really looked up to him, always respected him,” Young said. “He had the best shop in Telluride … he had a fantastic race team.” Years later, Young found himself in business with Brown. “He taught me a lot, probably more than I’ll ever realize,” Young said. In the world of retail, Brown prided himself on staying funky and loyal to locals, friends say. If you wandered into a gear shop he was manning over the years, odds are, he would pipe up and engage you in conversation, his blue eyes sparkling with a bit of mischief. He could be unruffled and a little surly. And sometimes he was a mess. “But he was an endearing mess,” said Peter Kenworthy, who met Brown shortly after he moved here with his young family nearly 20 years ago. Brown was the first person to get Kenworthy’s sons geared up with skiing equipment, and he continued to do so for years. “He was always a breath of fresh air,” Kenworthy said. “He had this wonderfully wry, sardonic sense of humor. He was one of those characters you don’t find very often … His loss just represents really a tragedy in my opinion.” Brown, friends say, went through ups and downs and had his demons, but most of the time he came out OK. “He was generous to a fault, passionate, inspirational with an amazing sense of humor, he was a kook,” Dahle said. Dahle’s last memory of riding with Brown was at the Mountains to Desert ride a couple years ago. Six hours into the race, he saw a Paragon jersey pull to the front of the pack, and the rider pulled the pack at what must have been 40 or 50 miles an hour toward Hole in the Rock. “I looked up and it was Michael Brown,” Dahle said. “I just remember being so impressed. There he was up at the front doing all the work, towing us all in.” Brown is survived by his wife Jackie, young daughter Eliza, sisters Cathy and Susie and a large group of friends." Taken from: https://www.telluridenews.com/arts_and_entertainment/article_1913e360-12dd-5440-86aa-56c0cbc6cce5.html Link accessed 11/19/20