Posted on 05/25/2008 7:39:25 PM PDT by Borges
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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