Even after nearly 25 years on the job, I’m astounded by the things I discover about businesses.

My latest surprise occurred when I received in my email inbox a news release from Knott Laboratory about another high-profile investigation in which the company was involved.

I was familiar with Knott Laboratory because of a story I reported in early 2022 about the forensic engineering and visualization firm and Stanley Stoll, the CEO who oversees operations from his office in Grand Junction.

I was impressed by the scope of the work the business has handled over the past 40 years, including investigations into the automobile accident that killed Princess Diana, the crash of an Air France Air Bus and the collapse of two overhead walkways in a Kansas City hotel.

I was flabbergasted by the latest announcement. Knott Laboratory was hired to create a digital reconstruction of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. The JFK assassination. Are you kidding me?

But wait, as the TV infomercials promise, there’s more. An analysis of the trajectory of one of the bullets fired at the president refuted the findings of the Warren Commission assembled to investigate the assassination.

Knott Laboratory conducted no less than 36 laser scans in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas that generated a total of 851 million data points used to create what Stoll called a “digital twin” accurate to within millimeters. The company combined that information with photographs and other evidence, including the so-called Zabruder film, to precisely place the presidential limousine, President Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally into the scene.

While Stoll offered no opinions about the multitude of theories that have proliferated since 1963, he focused instead on the science. That science detected a significant difference in the angles between two of the shots fired at Kennedy and Connally and a third shot the Warren Commission asserted wounded both men.

It will be fascinating to follow what happens next.

But that’s just one of the remarkable stories I’ve encountered in covering business. I’m amazed at what goes on here. The companies that build gigantic aquariums and the lifts that haul skiers and snowboarders up the slopes. The business that refurbishes massive aircraft. The software firm that’s revolutionized the way underground infrastructure is repaired and installed. Especially around the holidays, I’m thankful for the confectioner that makes what I contend is the most delicious almond toffee in the world.

I’m astounded as well by the entrepreneurs I interview. The innovation and passion they bring to their ventures. The risks they’re willing to take to bring to market better products and services.

I can only hope in reporting stories about these businesses and these entrepreneurs, readers are as astounded as I am.

Phil Castle is editor of the Business Times. Reach him at phil@thebusinesstimes.com
or 424-5133.