Your Average Billionaire - Mr. Spud

One time I was driving with a friend into Boise, kind of half-looking for a column. My friend said: "Idaho has the most millionaires per capita of any state. Why don't you call up the richest man in Idaho?"

The next morning, I found myself in the office of Mr. J.R. Simplot, not just a millionaire but a billionaire, who grows more potatoes than the entire nation of Ireland. It took less than an hour to see him.

Simplot was 81 then. He is 86 today.

"Wildest billionaire in the West" is the way Fortune mag headlined its recent cover story on Mr. Spud. His net worth is around $6 billion, so the years have been kind.

No matter what you read, billionaires in this good old land-of-opportunity USA aren't that frequent; 70 individuals and 59 families have a billion or more, so your chance of meeting one is not exactly odds-on.

Since that Fortune cover came out I've asked a few people at random, "How many billionaires have you ever met?" Most say "none" or shake their heads.

As it happens, I've met three of the species. The first was Mr. Spud, the second was Bill Gates, the third was Ted Turner. I spent close to two hours each with Simplot and Gates.

From Mr. Turner I got a limp handshake and an absent-minded, off-in-the-distance stare, so he hardly counts.

Bill Gates was 34 when I met him; they were calling him "the boy billionaire from Bellevue," which is wrong, because he still lives in Laurelhurst. He is 40 now and he may be the richest man in the world, if you don't count the Sultan of Brunei and maybe a couple of oil sheiks.

Millionaires today, of course, are as common as fruit flies. But billionaires are worth comment, if you don't take it seriously.

When I first met Simplot he talked about "my rig." His speech was a patois of blue-collar, dirt-scratch, Depression-era, blow-'em-out ambition.

Simplot's "rig," as he called it, was mostly potato growing and processing. If you like frozen French fries, hash browns or even Tater Tots, you probably got them from J.R. His "rig" also included phosphate fertilizers, enormous ranch holdings and dozens of other ventures.

He started getting rich by shooting wild horses and feeding them (along with potatoes) to some hogs. In the bottom of the Depression he sold 700 head of fat hogs and made a profit of $7,800.

"Oh, my God, that was a fortune!" he roared. Mr. Spud went right on getting richer and richer.

Today, Simplot is not exactly nipping at Gates' heels. Gates is No. 1 with $15 billion, followed by Warren Buffet at $12 billion.

Why do we pursue this essentially silly topic? Only because I realize now that my two billionaires reveal a triple generation gap.

Simplot, a bit of a rogue, is hard not to like. His garb is cowboy boots and jeans. His three favorite words are profanities.

Bill Gates is the modern version of a self-created tycoon. He is smoothly educated, well-read and uses words like "cool" and "super" and "gee whiz" and speaks of having "the funnest time" when he enjoys something.

He's a current star on TV entertainment shows.

It would be hard to imagine J.R. Simplot on the David Letterman show. When I left him that day in 1990 he threw out his heavy working man's hand. Then he said:

"I'm easy to talk to. Go ahead and write anythin' you want about me. I don't give a . . . "

Emmett Watson's column appears Tuesdays in the Local section of The Times.