Boulder mourns crash victim

BOULDER, Garfield County — Residents in this picturesque ranching community are mourning the loss of businessman and conservationist John Austin, who died along with a friend, Susan Gordon, when Austin's plane hit a power line and crashed Friday.

The Federal Aviation Administration inspected the scene and has forward its information about the crash to Elliott Simpson, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, according to NTSB spokeswoman Bridget Serchak.

Serchak said Simpson expects to release a preliminary report regarding the crash next week.

Austin, 64, a medical doctor who founded Arcadian Management Services, which provides management services to hospitals and health plans, had lived and worked in California.

However, he had been coming to Boulder regularly since he was a teenager. He and his wife, Jaqui Smalley, were in the process of moving much of their furniture from Oakland, Calif., and for many years had been active in Boulder community activities.

Boulder Mayor Bill Muse said the couple owned a 300-acre ranch and had just finished a new home that was complete with a conservatory.

"To his great credit, there were two older barns on his property, circa 1920, and he completely restored them beautifully. He had a big town party in one of the barns," Muse said.

Austin raised cattle and horses, and was particularly fond of Chilean horses, recalled the mayor, who said he had just seen Austin last weekend.

"He was very happy that he had two new foals and made his first sale of horses," Muse said. "He was first class all the way."

Curtis and Dianne Oberhansly said Austin and his wife for years had wanted to move to Boulder to live full-time and, in fact, were only a few days away from leasing their California home. They said Austin had taken steps to ensure that his ranch would remain a working ranch and would never be developed because he loved the outdoors and wanted to protect the property.

Both Austin and Smalley were major donors to the Boulder Community Alliance Program.

"He was fully engaged in life and loved the natural world," said Tim Clarke, executive director of the program. "He was always looking for ways to use his hard-earned money for good to help people and conservation causes."

Among other things, Austin supported the local library and provided grants and a yearly scholarship for children.

Clarke also characterized Austin as "a very professional and responsible pilot" who had taken Clarke on flights to Oakland twice.

When Clarke, who is a landscape architect who worked on Austin's properties, needed a place to stay, Austin and his wife provided a guest bedroom with a place for him to draw, even when he got other jobs in California.

"They would put me up and never ask for anything," Clarke said. "He was a wonderful, generous man."

E-mail: kimball@every1counts.net