Thanks Ray,
I did just that. For those interested in the solution, I created 4 different recordsets using the "limit clause" to select the desired records for each column and then displayed these vertically with corresponding repeating regions in separate divs
rsName1
"SELECT * FROM names ORDER BY last_name ASC limit 25, "
displays records 1-25
rsName2
"SELECT * FROM names ORDER BY last_name ASC limit 25, 25 "
displays records 25-50
rsName3
"SELECT * FROM names ORDER BY last_name ASC limit 50, 25 "
displays records 50-75
etc.