“I’m thankful for the time because we had some good rides on the ATVs.”

Saeman, who served as president and CEO of all Daniels companies in the 1970s and 1980s and later was chairman of the Daniels Fund, remembers competing with Jones.

Jones became the first person to organize public-limited partnerships to raise money to buy cable franchises. He went on to raise more than $1.2 billion in equity capital.

Saeman and Jones became personal friends when Saeman moved into Jones’ high-rise building in Cherry Creek about five years ago.

“It’s almost surreal that Glenn and I and Bill (Daniels) were competitors along the way both for franchises and the sale of limited partnerships units,” Saeman said. “We were never really close but we always knew one another from events. But I’d say in the last five years, when I moved into the same building as Glenn, we picked up a friendship. He was a great guy and I’ll miss him.”

Jones continued to stay on top of technology and education and acquired NCTI in 2005. Jones/NCTI in Centennial trains people in cable and broadband technology. The company recently partnered with CableLabs, a Louisville research and development consortium.

“Glenn was instrumental in mentoring me as I came into the cable industry – giving me his valuable time and support. Glenn was one of the most brilliant innovative minds in Cable. He will be greatly missed,” said CableLabs president and CEO Phil McKinney.

The Cable Center, a Denver non-profit educational organization, added Jones to its Cable Hall of Fame in 2005.

“Glenn Jones was certainly one of the original Colorado cable pioneers,” Cable Center CEO and president Larry Satkowiak said. “…He came from humble beginnings and never forgot that education was one of the keys to his success. He was determined that technology could best be applied to education as a great equalizer. We should all thank him for his leadership to digitize the book collection at the Library of Congress. He was a visionary who had a head for business, but the soul of a poet.”

Jana Henthorn, senior vice president at the Cable Center, was a longtime Jones Intercable employee.

“Once you worked with Glenn, you never forgot him. We weren’t his employees, we were his associates. The highest praise for an associate was to be told by Glenn, ‘The dragons in their caves tremble at your approach,’ ” she said.

In June, Jones was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress for his contributions to American society, joining an elite group that also includes U.S. congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, astronaut Sally Ride, musician Johnny Cash, chef Julia Child, and Big Bird. Read more