David Jasper '59
Because Mr. Jasper enjoys creating new smaller businesses, he left Control Data in 1979 to form his own business, Quest Management Associates, a corporate umbrella for several unrelated ventures. In addition to the above listed projects, Mr. Jasper acquired the first privately owned OMINMAX Theater in Seattle in 1981, which was suffering heavy losses. He successfully turned around the OMNIDOME and then merged it into an IMAX theater chain in joint venture with National Geographic Society. The theaters are located at National Parks and places of historic interest. Mr. Jasper learned how to form businesses while employed at Control Data Corporation. He was hired as a computer programmer, and worked his way up to corporate executive, by demonstrating his talent for creating and improving the company's various businesses including its multi-million dollar thrust into the national timesharing market and the CYBERNET computer network system.
Mr. Jasper has also co-founded a non-profit organization Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation, which has an annual budget over $2 million aimed at improving living and working conditions in the Central neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Mr. Jasper has a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and highly values the time he spent at Saint John's. He lives on Grey Cloud Island, Minnesota with his wife Sharon and is the father of six children with twelve grandchildren. He is active in his church and tutors in low income schools among other things. He also is co-author of the book: The New Entrepreneur: Business Visionaries of the 21st Century. Semi-retired now Mr. Jasper enjoys creating art through oil paintings.