Dennis DuBé

Dennis DuBé ('71) has left the University to start a university. Again. "It was time," he said. "It was the second-longest job I had, and I had this other project cooking."

DuBé left his job as a CU technology coordinator and journalism instructor in December after five years to work full time at his creation, Longmont Free University (Longmontfreeu.com). It opened in October.

LFU is an adult-education organization that recruits teachers from the Longmont area. In the late 1960s, DuBé said he helped founders Vic Reinking and Jack McGill establish the Community Free School in Boulder.

"We think this type of organization can be useful to many communities; a lot of businesses came out of Free School," he said.

DuBé spent his first nine years after graduation working at Community Free School. "I was involved with it for 10 years, and it survived after I left, just long enough so it wasn't my fault," he quipped.

In his career, DuBé said, he has been an editor of various newspapers and magazines; publisher of the Colorado Daily; business manager for Hide and Seek, a company developing optical copy-protection technology for CDs and DVDs; and worked for Apple Computer in a secret lab in Cupertino, Calif., where, he said, he was able to "watch the Internet come to life."

He said he also worked for Paramount Pictures, developing business models for online consumer purchases. But he said his favorite job was reporting for the Colorado Daily.

"I covered the legislature for six glorious months. That's all I ever wanted to do," he said. "Being a good reporter is the best thing to do in life. It's in service to truth, it's hard work and you meet really cool people." dennis.dube@longmontfreeu.com