James Q. Crowe, a technology and telecommunications visionary and founder of Level 3 Communications, passed away on July 2nd in Paradise Valley, Arizona, after a battle with pulmonary arterial hypertension. He was 74.
In 1988, Crowe is credited with launching MFS Communications, the first company to bring robust local competition to the Baby Bells via fiber optic communication technology. He took MFS public in 1993 and built it rapidly into a Fortune 500 company, before it was acquired by WorldCom in 1996 for $14.3 billion.
In 1997, with the support of Omaha-based construction giant Peter Kiewit Sons’, and Kiewit Chairman and Crowe mentor Walter Scott, Crowe raised $15 billion to establish Level 3 Communications. The company dug trenches and buried multiple conduits to carry optical fibers across the United States and parts of Canada, digging 16,000 miles along streets and railroads, installing electrical and optical equipment all along the path. They also built a similar network across Western Europe.
“Ever since James Crowe brought Level 3 Communications and thousands of jobs to Colorado a quarter century ago, Jim has been an admired and active business leader among our major employers,” said Colorado Governor Jared Polis. “Both my predecessors, former Governors Ritter and Hickenlooper, and I have called upon James Crowe for his creative and trusted advice on issues ranging from healthcare, technology, education and transportation to Covid response. He was a giant, and all of Colorado will miss his contributions to our civic life.”
