At a London pub in 1992, Ben Lockett, a captain and tank commander in the British Army, first met Kim. After graduating from CU Boulder, Kim was traveling around Europe and on a whim, decided to stay in London, getting a visa and a job at The Gap. The two became a couple even as Ben moved to different international stations. “I was sent to Central America and to Cypress. Kim stayed in London waiting for her sweetheart to return,” Ben said.

Ben was then sent to Germany and Kim had to leave for America when her visa expired. “We did a transatlantic relationship for a year and decided to get married,” added Ben. Though the couple would eventually move to Colorado, they spent the next seven years in various places around the world.

The Locketts had a destination wedding in Charleston, South Carolina, that was complete with Ben’s friends from his unit wearing swords and their British Army finery, ushering the newlyweds with ceremony. The couple then moved to Chester, a town on the Northwest coast of the United Kingdom. Ben continued his service in the army for three years. While in Chester, he was assigned to the British equivalent of the National Guard. When Ben left the Army, the Locketts moved from England, settling in Castle Pines.

In 1999, Kim and Ben were among the first residents in the Briar Ridge neighborhood, where they remain today. They raised Alex (26) and Annabel (24) and became true Coloradans by diving deep into mountain biking.

While biking is still a major part of Ben’s life, he said, “The real passion for me was youth coaching. For 10 years, I coached the Rock Canyon High School (RCHS) mountain biking team.” Alex, who graduated from RCHS in 2018, had been on the cycling team, motivating his dad to get involved.

Kim became part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), of which the RCHS team was a part, and she has been their national accounting manager for nine years.

In addition to NICA, Kim is the accountant for Ben’s business, The Last Mile Company, which he has owned for the last five years. Opened during the pandemic, Ben saw the rising need for e-commerce. “Logistics is embedded in what I learned while I was in the Army, so I wanted to start my own company related to logistics,” he said. The Last Mile Company delivers packages for Amazon—the corporation contracts out all of their deliveries to companies like Ben’s.

When the Locketts are not running a business, hitting the trails or trying new restaurants, Ben might be fly fishing and Kim might be gardening or playing with their miniature bull terriers, Freddy Mercury and Coco Chanel; but most likely, they are traveling.

Their daughter Annabel moved to London after a few months of European exploration last summer. Kim visits her every six months in between their family vacations—this past August, the destination was Croatia. From there, Ben and Alex flew to London to catch an Arsenal home game, their favorite football team in England. Though their home will always be Castle Pines, the Lockett family will never stray far from their international roots.

 

 

 

By Marly Holsman; photos courtesy of Kim and Ben Lockett