Posted on 05/25/2008 7:39:25 PM PDT by Borges
BOISE, Idaho - Billionaire J.R. Simplot, the spud king of America whose wealth also helped create one of the world's biggest computer chip makers, died Sunday at his Boise home. He was 99.
Ada County Coroner Erwin Sonnenberg said Simplot apparently died of natural causes.
The quintessential Idaho farmer increasingly dominated the state's business and political landscape for 70 years, and the company that bears his name remains a powerful force today — in Idaho and beyond.
Simplot and his family were ranked at No. 80 on Forbes magazine's 2006 list of richest Americans, with an estimated wealth of $3.2 billion.
His businesses, still family owned, manufacture agriculture, horticulture and turf fertilizers; animal feed and seeds; food products such as fruits, potatoes and other vegetables; and industrial chemicals and irrigation products.
In 1980, at age 71, Simplot took a gamble on the next generation of businessmen, giving Ward and Joe Parkinson $1 million for 40 percent of what would become computer chip maker Micron Technology Inc. Over the years, he pumped in $20 million more to help Micron build its first manufacturing plant and to stay afloat. Micron went on to become a major producer of DRAM memory chips, which are used to store information in personal computers.
Not a religious man — "I'm a fact man and if it don't add up, I don't buy it; I don't believe in hocus pocus," he said in a 1999 interview — Simplot credited his longevity to disdain for tobacco and alcohol.
He used to reward workers who quit smoking with $200 and once paid a couple to travel to Idaho schools exhibiting black lungs in bottles.
Born John Richard Simplot in Dubuque, Iowa, he was raised with five siblings on a hardscrabble homestead in Declo in south-central Idaho.
In 1923, he left home at age 14 with four $20 gold coins given to him by his mother. He paid $1 a day for room and board at Declo's only hotel.
As a shrewd young businessman, Simplot bought interest-bearing scrip paid to teachers who were also boarding there for 50 cents on the dollar. He used it as for collateral on a bank loan to buy 600 hogs at $1 each.
He spent the winter shooting wild horses, selling the hides and boiling the meat with potato scraps to feed the hogs.
When pork prices jumped the next year, he brought some rare fat hogs to market for a whopping $7,500.
That was Simplot's stake for the potato business. He leased land and from an early partner learned to plant certified seed, not cull potatoes as was common then. Idaho's dominance in potatoes grew with the innovation.
Simplot bought an early electric potato sorter and by 1940 had bought or built 33 potato warehouses along the rich Snake River plains from Idaho Falls to Vale, Ore.
A chance encounter with a Chicago businessman led Simplot into the onion-drying business in Caldwell in 1941. He made $500,000 the first year and soon was supplying much of the dried potatoes and vegetables consumed by U.S. troops during World War II.
The headstrong young man then started buying ranches, cattle and timberland. Taking notice of the wartime shortage of fertilizer, he bought phosphate reserves and built a fertilizer production plant at Pocatello.
After the war, his food production business expanded into freezing and canning, developing the product that would become the company's mainstay: the frozen french fry.
Simplot struck a deal with McDonald's Corp. founder Ray Kroc, and his fry business grew with Americans' love for fast food.
Late into his life, the former McDonald's board member drove his white Lincoln Town Car with "Mr. Spud" vanity plates to the fast food chain for hashbrowns or french fries several times a week. More recently, he could be seen driving around Boise in a motorized cart.
In 2004, he donated his former home in the Boise Foothills to the state to be used as Idaho's new governor's mansion.
Like many captains of industry, Simplot had scrapes with the law.
In the mid-70s, Simplot was charged with trying to manipulate Maine potato futures. He was barred from commodities trading for six years and paid $50,000 in fines and an undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit.
In 1977, he and the J.R. Simplot Co. each paid $40,000 in penalties for failing to report income and claiming false deductions.
Looking back on the incident in the late 1990s, he essentially dismissed it, saying, "Basically, I've never done anything wrong that I know of."
RIP “Mr. Spud”
What an amazing story...
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An object lesson for us all. Rich, old, avowed atheist and now dead.
RIP.
When I was 18 or 19 I was working at KFC. JR and his sons come in with their farm gear on. Beat up shirts, overalls, real beat up truck.
One of the punk idiot working there makes some comment about broke redneck hicks. I laughed at him and said “that tables worth more money then you will ever see in your life.
who is the richest in Boise now?
Hearing of his passing, and reading the articles and comments on the Idaho Statesman site makes me miss Idaho all the more. I will live in my home state again, one day — that’s a promise I’m making to myself.
RIP, Mr. Simplot.
As a guy who has farmed in Nevada, where HR owned several ranches, I can’t begin to explain to non-farmers what a huge and lasting impact JR had on western ag in Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon, etc.
Odds are usually better than 50% if you’re buying fertilizer in the region, that you’re getting it from Simplot. Same deal for farm chemical inputs (herbicides, pesticides, etc).
Simplot never did anything halfway. When he put in a feedlot in Caldwell, JR decided that getting corn by the rail car was too inefficient. So he decided to buy corn by the train. Whole train. The train rolls into the feedlot, crawls along the unloading tracts, the corn is dropping out of the hopper cars and getting augered into Simplot’s grain bins and a few hours later, the train rolls back out again, empty.
The best thing about Simplot was that he wasn’t a guy to buy land to put it to silly non-uses. When JR bought a ranch, it was to ranch.
I read this story with interest as the company I worked for was his frozen potato company’s primary competitor. I also followed Micron. J.R. was an interesting guy.
Gonna go with Steve Appleton
This is a refreshing story to read and for the most part an example . Kudos for the post .
I have heard he was a devout atheist. Wouldn’t wanna be him right now.
Does anykne recall he was short many contracts of Potatoes on the commodity market in the 70's. Usually this is an unforgivable sin.
He was. His kid is way less interesting.
He failed and/or refused to deliver.
Nothing against the guy. Don’t know him. But it’s a reminder to me that you can’t take your toys with you.
I met and dealt with the "Old Man" as he was known many times. One of my assignments was writing his brief biography for one of the company's reports. Thinking of possible negative public relations impact with PETA types, I soft-pedaled the details of his killing wild mustangs and feeding them to his first bunch of hogs. A few days later he called me in and gave me bloody hell for censoring it, insisting I include every last detail. He could not have cared less what anyone thought; he was very proud of that story. I thought better of him after that.
Another anecdote. The huge home he built in the Boise foothills (now the Governor's Mansion) featured an enormous custom-made American flag. Locals named the house Fort Boise, and the flag whipped and cracked in the wind so loudly it drove his neighbors half crazy. As I remember he refused to take it down but he may have after I left town. It caused quite a sensation for a time as I recall. Simplot did well while doing good. He helped Idaho potato farmers tremendously by offering them guaranteed prices for their harvests. He created thousands of jobs with his many plants and operations. He treated people fairly and tried to bring out their best. He was direct, spoke plain language and didn't put up with BS. He was a good man and he will be sorely missed.
Cool stories. Thanks for sharing.
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