A deeply felt loss for Boulder, Utah

Even though we have been acquainted for a few years, my wife and I were just in the process of getting to know John and Jacqui much better over this past couple of years in Boulder, Utah.  They were in Boulder more often developing the ranch and building their new home.  Last years primary season gave us a lot to talk about.  They were keen supporters of our 3 year old Boulder Community Alliance and Jacqui had just joined the Board in anticipation of moving to Boulder and assuming a strong role in our conservation and community stewardship programs.  Two of our key leaders in BCA, Tim Clarke and Peg Smith, were very good friends of John and Jacqui's.  Peg wrote a piece for our county weekly newspaper that sums up better than I ever could just what an accomplished and generous man John Austin was and how deeply his loss will be felt here in our small Boulder community and far beyond. 

Garfield County (Utah) Insider by Peg Smith

Some pass through the veil with a small sigh and a slight shuffling of the cosmic furniture. The sudden passing of John Austin, of Boulder, UT, and Susan Jordan, of Ukiah, CA, was a thunderclap, followed by the long, low rumbling of the cosmos pouring into a major void.

John H. Austin, M.D., ranch owner, pilot, prodigious businessman, and new retiree, died on May 29 along with a longtime friend, Susan Jordan, as they spent their last moments here doing two things both loved doing: flying and touring through spectacular canyon scenery. John’s wife, Jacqui Smalley, and Susan’s husband, Ronnie Wong, were waiting for their return at the Boulder ranch when they received the devastating news of the plane crash. Susan, a prominent L.A. attorney and also a pilot, had flown the couple’s Mooney from L.A. to the Bryce Valley airport to spend a week with John and Jacqui. 

The plane John and Susan were flying in Friday morning, a two-seater Storch, was a plane John had procured years earlier for the purpose of locating straying cattle and sightseeing through the area. Unlike his Cessna, which John and Jacqui used to commute from Oakland to Boulder, the Storch was strictly a touring plane, specifically intended for low, slow flight. While John’s occasional Storch tours over the Boulder area raised a few eyebrows, those who have been on the receiving end of such a tour are forever grateful and in awe of that spectacular perspective. John was a careful pilot, meticulous in his care of the plane and his passengers. He welcomed any opportunity to take a visitor or a resident up for a ride, in either plane. In years past, John took schoolchildren on short plane tours as rewards for their schoolwork---a memorable part of Boulder childhood for many now-adults. 

After his mother bought the house on Hwy 12, John has been coming to Boulder since he was 16 years old, spending summers riding, swimming, exploring, and working on various local ranches. In 2003, he acquired what is now Boulder Creek Canyon Ranch, originally part of the old Haws ranch, and put the 300-acre parcel under conservation easement, enabling the continuation of a working ranch while protecting the land from future development. 

Although saving the viewshed of that incredible Boulder property was in itself a great gift to all of Boulder, John’s accomplishments and generosity extend far beyond. For years, John and Jacqui have sponsored a Libri grant to the Boulder Community Library for acquisition of new children’s books. They founded the Boulder-Escalante Scholarship Foundation in 2005, which has helped fund college educations for several area graduates. Last winter, John bought flu vaccine for whomever wanted to get flu shots locally, and he and Chyleen Mackay, an R.N. inoculated a small line-up of people. John and Jacqui were generous supporters of the nascent Boulder Community Alliance, a local nonprofit group that sponsors a wide range of community projects. And besides financial generosity, John would be the first to volunteer his time, his expertise, or his equipment whenever someone had a need. He wasn’t a person to hold back if he thought he could render assistance, and with his plane, his medical background, and his connections, he often did that, quietly and privately, for more people than most of us will ever be aware of. He was so much looking forward to his retirement, living in his new house with Jacqui, working on and managing his ranch, and getting even more involved in local projects.

To see John working around his ranch or chatting with neighbors, one would never imagine his “other self” as a high-powered Oakland businessman, working in the highest echelons of the medical insurance industry. John was founder, Executive Chairman and Chief Medical Officer of Arcadian Management Services in Oakland. Prior to founding Arcadian, John had occupied executive positions with many other medical-related businesses, including President and CEO of UniMed, a physician management company based in Southern California; Executive Vice President for Health Plan of America, a California HMO; Chief Operating Officer of HealthAmerica a Nashville-based HMO; Chairman of the Board and current Board member of Coventry Health Care. He received his M.D. degree from the University of California in San Francisco, in 1970, a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University in 1972, and was Board Certified in Internal Medicine.

To say John Austin’s departure leaves a void is such an understatement. Part of the grief is knowing that people who barely knew him will now never get the chance to know him better.