Special Sections - Portrait

---

Nick Lopez: The one word that describes him is ‘passionate’

A neck and back injury robbed Nick Lopez of his life’s passion a few short weeks into his freshman year at Mesa State College. But his devotion to football was soon replaced with something he’d end up loving even more: ...

---

Ben Miller: Mr. Tech designs state-of-the-art technology for law enforcement

The guy with the big idea at the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department couldn’t buy one a decade ago. “Ten years ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and to be honest I don’t know how law enforcement came ...

---

Dillon Ragar: He may be just 15, but he’s already riding the airwaves

After a while Dillon Ragar’s middle school principal started to wonder why the seventh-grader occasionally scooted in late to class. For his age, the reason for the tardiness would have been a stretch of the imagination. At 12, the ...

---

Mike McBride: St. Mary’s CEO’s career has led him to the place he’s meant to be

At a 50-bed hospital in Pocahontas, Ark., if there’s snow on the sidewalk and nobody else around to deal with it, the CEO grabs a shovel. If there’s trash (or worse) on the floor and the CEO sees it, then the CEO cleans it up. At ...

---

Leah Adams: She stumbled on her career after attending skating championships

Only when Leah Adams begrudgingly attended the 1996 U.S. Figure Skating National Championships was she introduced to the sport that would change her life. Adams hadn’t even made it to her seat before the sight of the athletic skaters ...

---

Davy Lindig: Steady on the still, he brews and cooks perfection

Davy Lindig is alone on a Monday morning at Palisade’s Peach Street Distillers doing his favorite part of the job. Birthing bourbon. The front door is still locked to the public. Lindig, production manager and head distiller at Peach ...

---

John Jones: If it ain’t Volkswagen, forget about it

John Jones loves his 1957 Volkswagen Bus so much he would rather drive it than his wife’s comfortable Suburban. Ever since he owned his first one, he’s had a fascination with Volkswagens. That fascination has turned into an ...

---

Glen Dean: Longtime GJ dentist feels for those who struggle to get insurance

Jacob was not happy. His breath came in the “hup-hup-hup” that follows a big cry and his face was crumpled with misery. “Hey, Jacob,” Dr. Glen Dean said, smiling. Scowl. “You did a really great job ...

---

Kristi Porter: She took a chance in business, and now serves as bank president

Back in 1980, in her last year at Grand Junction High School, Kristi Porter took a business-related class. Even though Porter graduated that year, she never quite left the class behind. The class landed her in a training position at what was ...

---

The Thompson family: Pottery business is another way the family spends time together creating art

One minute, it’s a 60-year-old man seeking advice. Charles Carson had just finished painting black, zebra stripes on a white vase when he asked Lynn Thompson, “How dark will the stripes turn out?” Lynn’s son, Chris, ...

---

Seth Anderson: The art of survival

“Is that a Ben Potter?” Seth Anderson quizzes the coffee shop owner, leaning in to the landscape photograph. The feverishly colored hoodoo rock formations pop out against a cerulean-blue sky, framed by wispy clouds — a scene ...

---

Portrait 2011

Profiles of your friends and neighbors, as printed in three consecutive Sunday special sections in the Daily Sentinel. VOLUME THREE: UP-AND-COMERS Dillon Ragar: He may be just 15, but he’s already riding the airwaves Ben Miller: ...

---

Cuba Omohundro: Ride the rails and learn about western Colorado

In a few months, as summer nears, Cuba Omohundro will grab a bag with some of her belongings and catch a train headed east. If you’re lucky enough to be on the California Zephyr Amtrak train with her, you’re likely to hear some ...

---

Richard Fike: Historian has dedicated his life to preserving the American west

MONTROSE — Two miles east of downtown Montrose is an Old West town exhibit of some of the oldest buildings from the Uncompahgre Valley. The Museum of the Mountain West, founded in 2002 by longtime archeologist Richard Fike, is a ...

---

Steve Traudt: He not only loves taking pictures, he loves teaching photography

Photographer and former pharmacist Steve Traudt has been fascinated with science ever since he discovered darkroom equipment as a 10-year-old boy. “One of my grandparents had died and my dad and his brothers were cleaning out the attic ...

---

---