Rick Gaebe

In '86, my wife and I were looking to buy extra tickets to Stephen Jay Gould and Julie had two at her house. I got the tickets and she asked me to help.

I knew Julie in the mid 80s thru the mid 90s when she and Nancy and Megan ran a startup called PAL filling the 2,776 seats in The Schnitz at least five or six times a year with gods like Angelou, Updike, Oates, August Wilson, Stegner, Morrison, Roth, Atwood, and my favorite, McMurtry.

Julie was an extraordinary entrepreneur. Driven. Persistent. Strong-willed. Laser focused and disciplined. She knew how to measure risk, how to choose which risk to take, how to execute with urgency, and how to quickly clear up messes. PAL's success consistently elevated year-over-year because Julie knew how to leverage everyones' strengths. And, of course, we said Yes.

I have met with and listened to hundreds of entrepreneurs during my forty-eight years as a banker; the vast majority failed within two or three. Some became very successful while losing their children, their spouse(s), and layers and layers of friends.

Our Julie didn't.
RIP