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 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.
Thelma Keane inspired ‘Family Circus’ mom
PHOENIX — Thelma Keane, the inspiration for the Mommy character in the long-running “Family Circus” comic created by her husband, Bil Keane, has died. She was 82.
She died Friday of Alzheimer’s disease, the family said.
“Family Circus,” which Keane began drawing in 1960, depicts the life of two parents and their four kids. It is now featured in about 1,500 newspapers.
“She was the inspiration for all of my success,” Bil Keane, 85, told the Associated Press on Sunday. “When the cartoon first appeared, she looked so much like Mommy that if she was in the supermarket pushing her cart around, people would come up to her and say, ‘Aren’t you the Mommy in “Family Circus?”’ and she would admit it.”
Associated Press
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