On almost any Saturday in downtown Colorado Springs, two familiar rituals unfold just a few blocks apart. Families gather outside Josh & John’s Ice Cream, debating flavors before walking away with waffle cones in hand. Down the street, readers browse the shelves at Poor Richard’s before settling in with a cup of coffee or lunch. Both businesses have become part of the rhythm of downtown for generations of residents and visitors.
What many people don’t realize is that both were built by Colorado College alumni who arrived in Colorado Springs as students, saw something special in the city, and decided to stay.
John Krakauer ’85 and Richard Skorman ’74 helped create two of downtown’s most enduring gathering places. Their stories highlight how a CC education can connect students to a community—and inspire them to invest their talents, ideas, and energy in the place they call home.
Finding a Missing Scoop
John Krakauer never intended to become one of Colorado Springs’ best-known entrepreneurs. As a Colorado College student from Boston, he simply missed having a neighborhood ice cream shop.
“It started when I was walking around downtown when I was a CC student and recognized that there was something missing,” he says. “It was ice cream like we have back in Boston.”
That simple observation became Josh & John’s Ice Cream, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. What began as a single storefront has grown into seven Colorado locations, a wholesale operation, and a business that has employed thousands of young people while becoming a Colorado Springs tradition.
Krakauer credits Colorado College with shaping the way he approaches both business and life.
“I chose CC because of the Block Plan actually,” he says. “I do very well when I can focus on one thing. That’s how I operate, and I learned that skill while I was at CC.”
His education extended well beyond the classroom. As a tenor in the College choir, he built friendships that continue today and came to understand the value of collaboration.
“The thing that I learned at CC and really learned as I was opening up the ice cream store is that things can’t be done alone,” Krakauer says. “You really need people.”
That philosophy still guides Josh & John’s. The company partners regularly with Colorado College, sponsors CC hockey, and brings its Scoop Bus to campus events, where generations of students have made the shop part of their own college experience.
A Bookstore Becomes a Community
Years before Krakauer opened his first ice cream shop, another Colorado College student was laying the foundation for a different downtown institution.
Richard Skorman arrived in Colorado Springs in 1970 to attend CC. It was his first time living in the Mountain West, and he quickly fell in love with the city.
“I couldn’t believe the access to the mountains,” he says. “I always enjoyed the mix of people here.”
His path to becoming a downtown business owner was hardly conventional.
During his senior year at CC, Skorman worked at a bookstore that eventually went out of business. When the owners couldn’t pay him, they offered him books instead. Skorman decided to start his own used bookstore. He found inexpensive rent in an old house on Tejon Street and built bookshelves from Army Surplus ammunition cases that cost 29 cents each.
He even left a cash box at the store so customers could make their own change while he attended class or scouted for books. And he became adept at finding books discarded by CC students at the end of blocks, as professors sometimes assigned 10 or more books each block.
In 1977, Poor Richard’s Feed and Read opened its doors.
What began as a used bookstore eventually became a bookstore, card and gift store, restaurant, café, toy store, independent movie theater, and gathering place that welcomed readers, families, artists, students, community leaders, parents with kids, and neighbors.
From the beginning, Skorman envisioned Poor Richard’s as a place where people could read, drink espresso, listen to music, eat, watch films, meet friends, and organize around causes they cared about. The concept became part of the cultural life of Colorado Springs.
The Colorado Springs Independent was launched there, as were efforts including the Trails, Open Space and Parks initiative; Citizen’s Project; and the city’s first Pride Parade. The business also became an important gathering place for LGBTQ+ residents after Amendment 2 was approved by Colorado voters in 1992.
Skorman’s wife and business partner, Patricia Seator, played a major role in the business as well, leading its retail and creative design operations while Skorman focused on finances, the restaurant, and café.
“We’re business partners and we’re life partners,” Skorman says. “We’ve been together for 35-plus years. We love each other and we just feel like somehow it was meant to be.”
From Liberal Arts to Civic Life
For Skorman, the connection between Colorado College and his life in Colorado Springs went well beyond the decision to open a bookstore.
Because of the Block Plan and small classes, he developed close relationships with professors and students who became lifelong friends. Those relationships later became an important source of advice and collaboration in his business and political life.
“CC was an incredible opportunity for me to learn about film, politics, the environment, and business,” he says. “You know, a liberal arts education.”
The College also helped shape Skorman’s sense of responsibility to the broader community.
Professors introduced him to local environmental and political issues, while CC classmates and faculty later supported his civic work. Skorman was elected to Colorado Springs City Council four times, was appointed vice mayor and council president, and several professors and former classmates advised him and others as they developed the Trails, Open Space and Parks tax initiative.
Now in its 29th year, TOPS has generated hundreds of millions of dollars to preserve open space and support trails and parks throughout the region.
His civic work eventually extended beyond Colorado Springs. In 2007, he became regional director for then-U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, a Colorado College graduate. In that role, he worked on issues ranging from support for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to Fountain Creek restoration and regional water security.
Through decades of public service, environmental advocacy, and civic leadership, Skorman helped shape the future of Colorado Springs while remaining deeply connected to the downtown community he had helped build.
A Changing City, a Lasting Place
When Skorman arrived in Colorado Springs, the city had a population of about 135,000. Today, it is home to more than half a million people.
Downtown has changed dramatically as well. The department stores, movie theaters, grocery stores, hardware stores, and lunch counters that once anchored the area are gone. Some historic buildings disappeared during urban renewal.
But Skorman believes downtown’s continued strength comes from its ability to bring people together—and from the presence of locally owned businesses.
Poor Richard’s was part of that tradition from the beginning.
Fifty-one years after its opening, Skorman and Seator sold Poor Richard’s to fellow Colorado Springs locals Joe Cole and Sarah Gibeau-Cole in 2026.
Skorman hopes he and Seator will be remembered for providing “a business for everyone to feel comfortable to be themselves, to be entertained, to discover great films, to laugh, to learn, to play with their kids, to plot great ideas, and to be well treated by wonderful staff.”
He also hopes his civic legacy will be measured by something larger: a Colorado Springs region that grows responsibly, protects its outdoor spaces, maintains a cleaner environment, and treats its residents with respect and dignity.
More Than a Classroom
Although Krakauer and Skorman took very different paths, their stories share a remarkable trajectory.
Both arrived in Colorado Springs as CC students. Both noticed opportunities that others might have overlooked. Both built businesses that became gathering places. And both chose to invest their futures in the community around them.
Their impact can be measured in thriving businesses, longtime employees, preserved open spaces, civic initiatives, and generations of loyal customers.
But perhaps their greatest contribution has been creating places where people come together.
Every scoop served at Josh & John’s and every conversation shared over coffee at Poor Richard’s reflects something larger than entrepreneurial success. Together, these businesses demonstrate how CC influence extends beyond campus through alumni who invest their talents, creativity, and leadership in the city they call home.
