[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 102 (Thursday, June 19, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5827-S5828]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING J.R. SIMPLOT

 Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, in 1923, a 14-year-old boy dropped 
out of school in Declo, ID, and began working as a potato sorter. He 
eventually became a potato and hog farmer, a forester, a miner, an 
entrepreneur, an industrialist, an investor, a billionaire, and today--
he is a legend.
  John Richard Simplot was born in Dubuque, IA, in 1909--but his family 
moved to Idaho when he was young, and Idaho remained his home. At an 
early age, J.R. knew school was not for him, so he dropped out and 
began

[[Page S5828]]

working in the fields. He saved up and was able to buy 40 acres of land 
and several hogs. He planted potatoes and fed his hogs with a homemade 
feed recipe that allowed him to use his own spuds and meat from wild 
horses. That saved him some money on feed; moreover, as luck would have 
it, a harsh winter depleted the grain stock, and come market time, 
J.R.'s fat, home-fed hogs stood out against everyone else's skinny 
pigs, and the young man reaped the rewards.
  He expanded his hog business, and by the time he sold it, he owned 
roughly 500 hogs. He took his earnings and put them into horses, farm 
machinery, and seed potatoes. From there, he rented some land and began 
to build what would later become his empire.
  In 1928, at the ripe old age of 19, Simplot learned of a machine that 
had been built in eastern Idaho. It was an electrically driven potato 
sorter. J.R. saw potential and found a partner, and together they spent 
$254 on the new piece of equipment, which enabled them to sort not only 
their own crops but the crops of other farmers as well--for a price.
  A dispute between J.R. and his partner forced them to decide who 
would keep the machine. J.R. said ``I'll flip you for it,'' and 
wouldn't you know it--he won the coin toss. He was off on his own.
  Winning the toss was luck, but the rest of his success throughout the 
years can only be attributed to his devotion to hard work and his 
incredible resourcefulness. For years the young Simplot built hog pens, 
dug potato cellars, tilled soil, hauled sacks of potatoes, and did 
countless other tasks.
  It was after the Great Depression, though, when Simplot's chance came 
to make a name for himself in the potato business. The Bureau of 
Reclamation was created, and projects like dams and canals began along 
the Snake River in Idaho. The projects would bring more water to the 
valley, which would lead to more farms, more crops, and more 
opportunity to diversify within agriculture. By 1940, J.R. had 33 
potato warehouses and had also gotten into the business of onions and 
onion-drying.
  When the United States entered World War II, there were only five 
companies that could dehydrate vegetables, and no one could dehydrate 
potatoes at least not until J.R. Simplot found a way. He began 
producing dry potatoes for U.S. troops and by 1945 was producing an 
average of 33 million pounds of dried potatoes a year. That was one-
third of the U.S. military's consumption during the war.
  As his success in potatoes expanded, his ability to save money by 
producing his own raw materials grew. In 1943, he didn't have enough 
boxes to ship out his dry potatoes, so he started his own box plant. 
When that company needed more lumber, he bought a lumber company. And 
when his supply for fertilizer for his potatoes was cut off, he 
developed his own. He went to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation looking 
for phosphate rock for his new fertilizer and ended up tapping into the 
largest phosphate mine in the West. He leased the land and built a 
fertilizer plant.
  In 1945, J.R. Simplot became a cattleman when he built a small 
feedlot for the purpose of getting rid of the potato waste coming from 
his processing plants. Peelings and sprouts were mixed with alfalfa and 
barley to make feed for cattle, and yet another Simplot business 
flourished.
  A huge discovery in the 1950s propelled the empire forward even 
further when Simplot discovered a way to freeze potatoes--and the 
frozen french fry was born. It was the 1960s when J.R. went into 
business with a man by the name of Ray Kroc. Kroc was a fast food 
operator who had begun a chain. That chain was McDonald's, and soon the 
Simplot Company became the largest supplier of frozen french fries to 
the fast food giant.
  By the late 1960's, J.R. Simplot grew more potatoes, owned more 
cattle and land, and employed more people than anyone else in Idaho. He 
was the largest processor, drier, and freezer of potatoes in the world 
and owned processing plants, fertilizer plants, mining operations, and 
other enterprises in 36 States, Canada, and overseas--making him the 
largest industrialist in Idaho and one of the largest in the world.
  But he continued to get into new businesses. Using his potatoes, he 
began producing ethanol in the 1970s, and with the manure from his 
cattle operations, he began fueling methane gas plants in the 1980s. At 
the same time, he invested in a small computer chip company that is 
today Micron Technology.
  He left his footprint on Idaho perhaps more than anyone else in 
history. Dubbed ``Mr. Spud,'' he provided countless jobs for Idahoans 
in so many areas. He seemed to have his hand in everything that is 
Idaho, and everything he touched seemed to succeed.
  But that is not the reason I admired the man. Even with all his 
success, J.R. Simplot had his failures. The difference between many 
people and Jack, though, was his never-ending drive and determination 
to get up and do something again, and to do it better. It was his 
persistence in wrangling successes from failures that made J.R. the 
kind of man everyone should admire.
  He wasn't just a brilliant business man. He loved Idaho, and in fact, 
a few years ago, signed his home over to the State of Idaho to use as 
the new Governor's mansion. He also loved his fellow Idahoans. And 
although he never received a formal education, he always believed in 
getting one and therefore gave millions of dollars to universities and 
students in Idaho. He was also a major supporter of the arts.
  Recently, at the young age of 99, J.R. Simplot passed away at his 
home in Boise. He had risen that Sunday morning, walked into his 
kitchen and insisted to his wife Esther that he was going to go to the 
office. That was the kind of man J.R. Simplot was. Even at the age of 
99, even with billions of dollars, his last thought was that he needed 
to go to work.
  I am going to miss my friend Jack, and my sincere condolences go out 
to Esther and his family. But it is important for the record to show 
that his passing has significance well beyond his immediate community 
in Boise. J.R. Simplot should be celebrated for the tremendous impact 
he had, not only on Idaho's history but on U.S. history. That impact, 
and his legend, will live on.

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