Colorado Springs entrepreneur and philanthropist Gary Loo dies at 82

Jan. 5—Colorado Springs businessman Gary Loo, who helped grow his parents' thriving greeting card, stationery and mail-order company into an industry giant, and whose decades of friendship, philanthropic contributions and love of community endeared him to thousands of people in the Pikes Peak region, died Dec. 21 after multiple health issues. He was 82.

"Our city has lost a great entrepreneur and philanthropist," Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, a close friend, said via email. "Gary Loo grew up in Colorado Springs and loved the city."

Born in Kansas City, Mo., Loo moved with his parents, Orin and Miriam Loo, to Colorado Springs in 1946. After arriving in the Springs, the Loo family launched a business whose legacy continues today.

In 1947, Orin Loo, who was an artist and lithographer at Hallmark Cards for 10 years before moving to the Springs, borrowed money from his father-in-law and founded Looart Press, a greeting card and stationery company, according to Gary Loo's obituary and a biography of the Loos when they were inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2009. Miriam Loo initially operated the business from their Colorado Springs home with a printing press in their garage, the Hall of Fame biography said.

In 1950, Miriam started the mail-order side of the business, Current Inc., while trying to find a market for Orin's boxed note paper, the Hall of Fame biography said.

The two sides of the business grew throughout the next decade. In the early 1960s, Lester "Dusty" Loo, Orin and Miriam's oldest son, joined the business and was followed by Gary, who had served in the Army and graduated with a business degree from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

Though Looart and Current already were successful, the businesses took off under Dusty and Gary's leadership. The businesses, which merged in 1967 and operated under the Current name, became a major local employer with more than $100 million in annual sales by expanding product lines to include wrapping paper and mail-order checks, among other items, according to a Gazette story in 2009.

Dusty Loo, who died on Christmas Day in 2001, and Gary, were "best buddies" as brothers and business partners, said Jon Medved, a former Current marketing executive and who also headed two other local direct-marketing companies. Dusty focused on the marketing side of things, while Gary was more involved in day-to-day operations, he said.

On the business side, Gary "had a great strategic sense, it was sort of like he could see the future," Medved said.

For example, years before Colorado Springs grew to the north, and when there was little nearby, the Loos purchased land southeast of Interstate 25 and Woodmen Road where they developed a campus for Current, he said. Today, the area is one of the busiest parts of town.

"Between them, they had this really complimentary situation and they were able to build a fantastic business with it," Medved said. "I think it had a lot to do with their strategic vision. They were terrific with that."

Gary Loo, like Dusty, was a down-to-earth person who treated everyone at Current as equals, while the pair emphasized a community atmosphere and held company Christmas parties, said Anne Loo, one of Gary Loo's two daughters.

She said she remembered visiting the business with her father, who knew everyone from the top offices, to the lunchroom, to the loading docks.

"One of the things he was most proud of was just knowing all the people he knew," Anne Loo said. "His favorite thing was to say he like to manage by 'MBWA — management by walking around.'"

His embrace of friends and employees, she said, was instilled in him as part of his student years at Cheyenne Mountain School District schools. As a student, and drawing on his father's artistic background, Gary Loo developed a love for the arts, sports and plays — as well as friendships, she said.

"He had a lot of passions and he brought those passions to business," Anne Loo said. "It was passions for people, passions for art, passions for fun and community, camaraderie. There wasn't a thing that he did where he didn't have friends where he did it. And so business and pleasure were really blurred and that was a real secret to his success, because he enjoyed what he did."

By the early 1980s, Current had grown dramatically and at one point employed more than 1,500 people and occupied 1 million square feet of plant and office space.

In 1986, the Loos sold Current for $115 million, acording to Gazette archives. The sale enabled Dusty and Gary to invest in several other business ventures and donate to numerous community initiatives.

The brothers formed High Valley Group, which among other investments, financed development in 1995 of the remaining, undeveloped portion of the master-planned Briargate community on the city's north side; provided a $1.5 million loan several years earlier that helped build the original Sky Sox Stadium on the Springs' northeast side; and invested in the Union Medical Campus at Union Boulevard and Fillmore street, according to Gazette archives.

The Loos also were the largest shareholder in Izze Beverage Co., a Boulder-based maker of natural, sparkling fruit juice drinks that was sold to PepsiCo in 2006 for a reported $75 million, a 2009 Gazette story reported. They also invested in Nighthawk Industries, a Springs-based carbon-monoxide detector manufacturer that was sold in 1996.

Along the way, Dusty and Gary gained reputations as smart and shrewd businessmen who were willing to help industry colleagues.

Gary Loo became an early mentor and advisor to Buck Blessing and his partner, Ian Griffis, when they formed Griffis/Blessing in 1984. Blessing, the CEO of the Springs-based apartment management and investment firm and a friend of Gary Loo's for nearly 40 years, remembers that he and Griffis, as Colorado College graduates without business backgrounds, sought out successful local business people for advice when they were getting started.

Loo didn't hesitate to meet with them. He told them to form an advisory board to help guide the fledgling company, which they did and that Loo served on, Blessing said.

Sign Up for Springs AM Update

Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country

Sign Up

View all of our newsletters.

Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

View all of our newsletters.

Loo had a keen business acumen, Blessing said, with a knack for synthesizing complex information, analyzing alternatives and then making a decision.

"He'd just be sitting there very quietly, listening intently," Blessing said. "Then you'd say, 'OK, that's it.' And he'd say, 'OK, this is what we'll do.' He knew. He got it. He had all the pieces and he'd come to the right conclusion very quickly."

Loo also demonstrated great integrity. "You could take Gary's word to the bank," Blessing said.

In addition to his business savvy, Loo was a friendly man who enjoyed his relationships with Dusty, other family members and community residents, Blessing said. At the end of a business deal, he said, Loo was "the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with."

Loo continued to work at his High Valley Group office in downtown Colorado Springs until close to his death, said Kathy Loo, Dusty Loo's wife of 40 years.

"He never missed going into the office, and being there one, two, three hours," Kathy Loo said.

But Loo wasn't just about business; he wanted Colorado Springs to be the best city it could be, and was willing to invest time, money, ideas and personal influence to achieve those goals, Blessing said.

"He loved Colorado Springs with a passion and he was constantly thinking about ways to improve the community," Blessing said.

Suthers, as mayor, said Loo was always there for community support.

"Whether it was to help on an important ballot issue or to build a new Pikes Peak Summit Visitor Center, he was always eager to help," Suthers said.

Their relationship also had a personal side, Suthers said.

"Gary's parents Miriam and Orin Loo, and my parents, Pat and Bill Suthers, were very close friends and our families spent a great deal of time together," the mayor said. "I was always touched that Gary went out of his way to tell people that he was, as a 12-year-old, among the first people to see me on the day my parents picked me up from an adoption agency."

Part of the community commitment by Loo and his family included years of financial contributions and support for Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and and dozens of other projects and nonprofits, The Gazette reported in 2009. That year, for his business success and philanthropic efforts, Loo received the first Lifetime Entrepreneurship Award from the College of Business at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Two of Loo's favorite nonprofits were Cheyenne Village, which assists and supports adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and The Myron Stratton Home, which provides housing, programs, services and grants for less fortunate residents. The Myron Stratton Home opened in 1913 and was built after the death 11 years earlier of benefactor Winfield Scott Stratton, the first millionaire of the Cripple Creek gold rush; the home was named for Stratton's father.

Loo served as a Myron Stratton Home board trustee for 32 years, from 1976 to 2008. During that time, he developed an "unbelievable devotion and affinity" for the organization, and signs of his involvement, such as grant programs and other initiatives, are everywhere, said Colorado Springs attorney David McDermott. He said he became a Myron Stratton board member at Loo's request; the two only served a short time together on the board, but became close friends.

"He gave an overview to me of its mission and how important it had been in the history of Colorado Springs, and that anybody that's going to serve on the board of trustees should really immerse themselves in knowing who we serve out there, what the mission is and what Stratton really wanted to see happen in Colorado Springs," McDermott said.

Though McDermott had served as a local school board president and chaired the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, Loo told him, "this is going to be the most important thing you're ever going to do," McDermott said. "He really had a strong devotion to that."

"This was a community that my dad gave a lot to, but he received as much in return," Anne Loo added. "It was a relationship of mutual benefit. I think he felt a lot of civic pride in the city he grew up in and was happy to be able to give back in the ways he could."

The family obituary described Loo as "passionate about business, giving back, clubs, friends, family, and the love of fine arts, food, sports, aviation, and motorsports."

He was "a good skier, an excellent skater and captain of the CMHS (Cheyenne Mountain High School) hockey team," the obituary also said. "He loved music and dancing but was most passionate about the game of golf, referring to the golf course as his 'church.' But whether on or off the course, having fun with his many buddies and family gave him his greatest joy."

Loo and his wife, Jane, married in 1963; the couple enjoyed homes and gardens in Colorado and Wisconsin, the family obituary said. Jane died in 2018.

In addition to his wife and brother Dusty, Gary Loo was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by another brother, Roger "Skip" Loo; daughters Anne Loo (Brad Nyberg) and Julia Loo-Sutcliffe (Steve Sutcliffe); four grandchildren; and companion Heather Olson, who provided Loo with "an abiding friendship, care and support" after Jane's death, according to the family obituary.

A celebration of life will take place at a date and time to be determined at High Valley Farm, a property on the city's southwest side that Gary Loo helped preserve and where the family has held gatherings over the years. Instead of flowers, friends are asked to donate in Loo's honor to Cheyenne Village or a charity of their choice.