John Edward Lauer

Longtime Boulderite John Edward Lauer succumbed to old age in his home on June 30th, 2018. He was 90.

Born December 26th, 1927 in Highland Park, Michigan to parents Raymond Lauer and Evelyn Naomi Maxwell Lauer, John grew up in his birth state, residing there through graduate school, obtaining his Masters in Physics from the University of Michigan. Degree in hand, John entered the United States Air Force; being offered a commission as a Lieutenant, working in nuclear weapons testing and development at the USAF Kirtland Airbase in New Mexico.

During the time John was in college, he and his brother spent several summers working fire mitigation in and around Yosemite National Park. He had also visited Aspen as a member of the University of Michigan Ski Club. So it was that John fell in love with mountains and Colorado in particular. John settled in Boulder after his military service. He first worked at the National Bureau of Standards and then decided to open his own business: JEL Audio Consulting, the first HiFi business in Boulder. Subsequently through his clientele of University professors, John discovered a Bendix G15 computer in the basement of the Engineering department, which he undertook to learn to program. This ultimately led to the closing of the HiFi business and assuming a programming position at the University of Colorado's computing center.

After several years of this, he decided he would like to establish his own computing business and formed Colorado Computing Corporation, Boulder's first service bureau. CCC specialized in payroll services, ultimately developing a customer base of approximately 200 locally owned businesses, serving local legends like McGuckin's Hardware, The Greenbriar, Red Lion and Catacombs restaurants. John also spent time volunteering as an interviewer for KGNU, and while as a board member, also helping maintain the books. He was a member of MENSA, the ACLU, ACM (Association for Computer Machinery) and Tau Beta Pi, his university fraternity, with which he remained an active member until his passing. John was an avid skier, and was also active in hunting, horseback riding and the Colorado Mountain Club during the 1960s.

John was preceded in death by his brother, Robert Maxwell Lauer, on June 25th, 2002. Though he has no surviving family, John is survived by his close friend of almost six decades, Judd Johnson, who remembers John as "thoughtful, kind and caring...doing his best to mentor the next generation." Rest in peace, John. Thank you for your many contributions to our community.