Greetings:                                                                                                                                        Denver, November 2011

In late 1979, three of us formed a company to install cabling and patch panels for computer systems in the Denver area. The three people were me, my wife Dixie Butler Holm, and her son Ron D. Griffith. We had the advantage that customers were delighted to have us do our work after-hours so that we were not in the way of their staff; when business hours resumed after the weekend, a new system was installed, tested, up and running and the three of us were back at our regular "day jobs".  I was also lecturing two nights a week at the University of Denver, teaching courses in computer science and programming languages.

This convenient part-time work soon exploded to the point that we had to purchase a van, hire additional installers and get a small office space with a full time receptionist.  Ron, Dixie and I carried pagers so the receptionist could contact us.  Cell phones hadn't been invented yet, and those early PageBoys were a lot bulkier than anything in use today.

On February 13, 1980 we incorporated, and American Datapath Incorporated was born.  I was the initial president, Ron was executive vice-president and Dixie was secretary of the corporation.

Ron was the first to come on full time, leaving his position with General Electric.   I continued my "day job" as Information Services Vice-president of Miller International, Inc until 1981.  Dixie continued to do all of our accounting work part time, but continued to hold down her job as Data Processing Manager for Carson's Inc., a restaurant supply firm in LODO.  We figured that one of us should retain a real job:  more than one visitor to our trade show booth in 1981 told us they couldn't see the need for a company that just installed computer cable.

By 1984 our gross revenue was over a million dollars a year.  We bought the building at 2345 S. Platte River Drive, and installed our own multi-user computer system. The Radio Shack TRS-80 was retired.  Dixie decided the venture was stable, and joined us full time (read: we could finally afford to pay her). After twenty years, I retired from teaching nights at D.U., but I still miss those classes.  I always told my students that the computer field was moving so fast that I gave the same final exam every quarter, but changed all the answers.

The next few years at American Datapath saw steady growth and refinement.  Ron became president, I continued as treasurer.  Fortunately, the tenants we inherited in the north half of the building retired. We needed the whole building for ourselves, and next year added a warehouse area with fork lift access and a loading dock.

The industry stabilized as well.  In the early days, every computer vendor had its own protocols, and our warehouse was awash with hundreds of styles of cable and connectors.  Soon UTP (unshielded twisted pair), Category-5 became a de-facto standard and fiber optic came along with only two major standards. Cat-5 morphed into CAt-6e.

Dixie and I retired to Maui in 1999.  I do a little consulting work for neighbors in east Maui, helping with internet interfaces, cell phone boosters, and, yes some cabling. Ron continues to offer his excellent guiding hand and assistance in Denver, but he turned the key executive positions over to two employees who have been with the company for several years: 

Kristin Newman is now president, and Veronica Griffith is vice-president, chief financial officer. Ron's daughters, our grand-daughters.

Dixie and I are inordinately proud of the people who ARE American Datapath, and continue to set the standards for service, experience and knowledge.  Two of the four people who joined us in 1980 are still with us, a third 1980 alumni retired four years ago at age 67.  Many of our loyal "family" have been on board for 15 years or more.  As I write this, two of these fine folks are representing us installing fiber optic cabling in Antarctica, a few miles from the South Pole.

Apparently, there was a need for a company to install computer cabling after all.

Dixie and I are blessed to have been a part of this family for 32 years and counting.  Carry on!

Respectfully submitted,

T. Dean Holm

Chairman, Board of Directors