Potato king J.R. Simplot, U.S. fry innovator, dies

[douglas9]

Source: Reuters

BOISE, Idaho (Reuters) - J.R. Simplot, the billionaire founder of the Boise, Idaho-based agriculture business that bears his name and who helped make French fries a staple of the American diet and waistline, died on Sunday at the age of 99, officials said.

After pioneering the first commercial frozen French fry in the late 1940s, Simplot eventually became a major supplier of Idaho potatoes to McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's. His privately held company, where he was chairman emeritus, reported $3.3 billion in sales in 2006.

An official at the Ada County Coroner's office said Simplot died at home on Sunday morning of natural causes.

Born John Richard Simplot in Dubuque, Iowa in 1909, he left school at the age of 14 to work in the agriculture storage and distribution business. He started his first produce company in 1929, and eventually became a major supplier of dehydrated potatoes to the U.S. military during World War II.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN0417152520080526

[Doug.Goodall]

1. How should we remember JR Simplot?

Celebrate his giving us the yummy French Fry or curse him for his contribution to obesity in America.

[douglas9]

2. Contributions to the GOP?

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00120873

[saigon68]

13. 100% to the Pukes

JR Simplot Co

2008 PAC Summary Data


2008 election
so far*

Select a Cycle:
Total Receipts $72,952
Total Spent (view expenditures) $37,500
Begin Cash on Hand $19,404
End Cash on Hand $54,858
Debts $0
Date of last report March 31, 2008
Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (list recipients)
(0% to Democrats, 100% to Republicans) $18,000
Contributions to this PAC from individual donors of $200 or more (list donors) $10,050

He probably sold all the powdered potato shit shit to Halliburton to serve in Iraqi Mess Halls

[YDogg]

4. "Would you like fries with that?" may be all he wanted.

:shrug:

[Voltaire99]

5. The remains should be deep-fried.

And buried in wax paper.

Gravestone: BELOVED BIGGEE-SIZED HUSBAND AND FATHER

[shadowknows69]

3. A man after my own heart attack

Good journey ye Lord of Grease. Clearly to live to 99 he didn't eat much of his own product.

[sellitman]

6. Mr Potato Head won't be Cremated.

He asked that he be baked in an oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and served with a side of butter and sour cream.

[pattmarty]

7. Hey, the guy lived to be 99 yo, just five or so short of McSame.

[noonwitch]

14. He must not have eaten a lot of his own products...

99, that's a good, long life.

[CatholicEdHead]

8. Simplot brings you McDonald's French Fries

They are produced up at their plant in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Simplot is all over North Dakota, Idaho, Montana, I also heard about them having operations down under in Australia.

[kestrel91316]

9. There was a lot about him in the book Fast Food Nation.

Where I lived in OR many years ago there was a Simplot potato processing plant in town. They made McDs hash browns.

I happen to think the man was, if nothing else, a culinary genius. Those fries and hash browns are one of life's great pleasures for me. Being unhealthy, they only gain admission to my tummy about once a year. Sad.

[mbperrin]

10. Can we get some real food now, please?

Ground up and glued together sticks deep fried in grease which are hard as oak 10 minutes later are not food.

They're shit, they're cheap shit, and the markup on them is more than 900%. That's the "genius" - sell people shit and make a huge fortune.

I mean, the recipe for French fries is so hard, right? Like cut a washed potoato into strips and fry, drain, perhaps a bit of salt and eat. But REAL potatoes cost 8 times what potato puree costs.

Real food, now, please, and in quantities that real people eat, rather than Godzilla portions 3 times bigger and 6 times more expensive?

[MilesColtrane]

11. He died of natural causes.

I've always wondered about that phrase.

Every time someone dies, it's from a natural cause. Heart attack, disease, getting hit by a bus, are all naturally occurring phenomena.

What's the alternative, dying of supernatural causes?

[floridablue]

12. So he was responsible ???

For those Gawd Awful dehydrated powder crap they mixed with water and told us we had mashed potatoes in Vietnam so many years ago. All these years I have been better off not knowing of him, perhaps now that he is dead some 40 years later I will try mashed potatoes again.