05/28/08 Simplot Company to stay in Idaho

The company JR Simplot started will stay in Idaho and will remain family owned. Former Governor Phil Batt may have said it best; he did more to build Idaho than any other one person. Batt was talking about John Richard Simplot. A public memorial service for JR Simplot will be held next Sunday at Boise's Qwest Arena. A Declo farm boy who never went to high school Simplot built a company and personal fortune estimated at 3.6 billion dollars. He died Sunday at the age of 99. It began with a teenager leaving home, buying some hogs which he sold at a 75 hundred dollar profit. That was the stake in his potato business. Simplot supplied dried potatoes and vegetables to US troops in World War Two. After the War, he and McDonald's owner Ray Kroc met. SIMPLOT "We do grow a lot of potatoes. I got old man Kroc of McDonalds to use them." And it was millions of Simplot dollars that expanded his empire from potato chips to computer chips when he invested in startup Micron Technology in 1980. His son Scott said the JR Simplot Company won't change with the death of its founder. His mark is all over the state and with accuracy we can say 'there will never be another like JR Simplot.' Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott