A great American success story ended during the early hours of June 24 when Kenneth Nicholas Pontikes died, aged 54. Pontikes was the chairman of Comdisco Inc, a computer trading and leasing company he started in 1969 and which he built into a $2,500m enterprise with worldwide scope and a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Pontikes was admired by his friends and respected by his competitors more for his character than his success. His word was a more reliable bond than the formal obligations of many others. His efforts created the markets on which thousands of customers, knowingly or not, depend when they buy, sell or lease computers. Pontikes had a buoyant personality. When he erred and failed in a risky business deal, he invariably paid his bills and went on, wiser and without bitterness, to the next situation; when he succeeded, he never gloated. He attributed his positive attitude and his humility in large measure to the example set by his father, Nicholas, a Greek immigrant who owned a grocery store on Chicago’s South Side. That grocery was the source of $5,000, a significant portion of Comdisco’s miniscule founding capital. Pontikes was a graduate of Southern Illinois University and held a degree in economics. After graduating in 1963 he joined IBM, where he became a salesman for the Information Records Division. He left IBM in 1968. Apparently the company didn’t recognise his talent, although it would soon learn. By the late 1970s, Comdisco had garnered a reputation for undercutting IBM and accommodating end users – while still turning impressive profits – that it holds to this day. Pontikes died of cancer while at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He had been seriously ill for several months, but until quite recently he nevertheless went to work at his suburban Chicago headquarters. He leaves a wife, Lynn, and three children from a previous marriage. One of those children, Nick, heads Comdisco’s disaster recover services division. – by Hesh Wiener
