J.R. Simplot - 1909-2008
Statement
J.R. Simplot - 1909-2008
A man that lived, and fully experienced the "American Dream"
I didn't know J.R. Simplot well
but he has been a big part of Idaho my
entire life.
The summer after my graduation from Caldwell High School, several
friends and I went to work at Simplot's Caldwell processing plant. One of my
friends ran the cutter deck, and I ran the dryers that dehydrated small potato
cubes, throughout that summer prior to my starting school at the College of
Idaho.
In 1975, my then-fiancé and I got jobs at the plant this time, Sylvia ran
the same Dehy line I had been running, and I went to work in Plant II on the
French fry cutter deck. We both worked two jobs at the time Sylvia worked
part time at the Caldwell Sears store, and I was working full-time at Albertsons in Caldwell.
By 1976, I was in a management position at Albertsons, and left Simplot.
Sylvia stayed on, and became part of the Corporate Graphic Arts and Printing
Department.
I believe the first time I actually met Jack was when Sylvia and I attended a retirement party for then-Simplot President John Dahl in 1978. We visited on
several occasions in the years that followed, and he always knew who we were.
Remembering the people he met was just one of the great things about him.
Jack's life was, in every way, the fulfillment the American dream.
He showed us that anyone that had a dream, desire and ambition to
achieve it, could. He started with nothing, basically, and over the years, built
a very successful family of businesses. All along the way, he provided jobs and opportunities for thousands upon thousands of people in his various
enterprises, and created new markets for the crops of countless farmers.
His secret for success was simple: find a product or service that
people need or want, then develop a business model to provide it.
That's free enterprise, pure and simple.
He knew that Idaho farmers needed a way to get their potatoes to market, so after a successful start raising and selling hogs, he bought equipment to sort potatoes and built storage facilities from eastern Oregon to eastern Idaho. As the business grew, he began processing those potatoes, and over the years, developed dehydration and freezing processes that created entirely new markets for potatoes. When he learned how fertilizer could increase crop yields,he went into business producing fertilizer. As his potato processing plants grew, he went into the cattle business, where he used potato byproducts as feed. He got involved in a lot of other business ventures, too, from mining gold and diamonds to building computer chips. Each of his ventures involved finding a need and filling it. When a venture didn't work out the way he planned it to, he moved on to something else.
The second ingredient for a successful business is the willingness
to take risk and to try new things. That's where dreaming, innovation
and creativity come into play. Jack was never a stranger to taking carefully
calculated risks. Taking risks involves also being able to take personal
responsibility for your actions, and Jack did that, too.
J.R. Simplot is not the only Idaho success story he was just one
of the biggest. There are a great many others, from Joe Albertson to
Harry Morrison. They all did business the "old fashioned way," and left
their marks throughout Idaho and the nation through their stewardship
they all gave countless of millions of dollars back as donations. I can'
t even begin to list all of the benefactors of this stewardship, but the
impact of that "generation" of business leaders fills volumes.
Tom Basabe, President of Simplot Land & Livestock said that the greatest
complement Jack gave a person was when he said, "I gotta' take my hat off to ya'." Tommy said he couldn't take his hat off, that it was in the pickup. But, the thousands at Jack's Memorial Service at Qwest Arena in Boise joined him in giving his friend a big hand.
I, too, am extremely happy and proud to have known him, and to have
experienced his contributions to the building of Idaho as we know it today. As one girl told Channel 7 after the service, "he's an inspiration." That he is
he has shown us all that in America, anything is possible if you are willing to dream and give it all you've got.
It has been said that there will never be another like J.R. Simplot.
That might be true he was one-of-a-kind
but I can't help but think
that there are young entrepreneurs out there that have a dream
that
have figured out the ingredients of a great new product or service
that are stifled by laborious paperwork, regulation, and government
control, holding them back from being everything they can be
struggling with having the carrot of success and the American Dream
being held beyond their reach.
And, that is what my campaign for the U.S. Senate is all about
making the American Dream possible for anyone that is willing to do
what it takes to achieve it. My campaign to "Bring America Back" is
about removing those obstacles and giving people the opportunity to
reach their full potential.
Source