Business people who died in 2010

January-2010

Harry Männil Born May 17, 1920(1920-05-17) Tallinn, Estonia Died January 11, 2010(2010-01-11) (aged 89) San José, Costa Rica Resting Costa Rica place Residence Estonia (1920–1943) Venezuela (1946–2010) Ethnicity Estonian Citizenship Estonian, Venezuelan Occupation Businessman Known for Entrepreneurship, art collecting, alleged war crimes Spouse Masula D'Empaire Children 4 Relatives Ralf Männil (brother) Harry Männil (May 17, 1920 Tallinn, Estonia – January 11, 2010 San José, Costa Rica) was an Estonian businessman, art collector, and cultural benefactor in several countries. In 1946, he moved to Venezuela, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was a successful businessman and part owner of ACO Group, a large Venezuelan automotive concern. He formed his own company in 1994. Harry Männil was accused by the Simon Wiesenthal Center of having participated in the murder of Jews while he worked for the political police in 1941–1942 during the German occupation of Estonia. After a four-year probe, Estonian investigators could find no evidence against him and he was cleared of the charges.

Harry Männil was born into an iron salesman's family on May 17, 1920, in Tallinn, Estonia, and spent his childhood in Pääsküla, Tallinn. [1] [2] He graduated from the Gustav Adolf Grammar School in 1938 and from 1939–40 studied economics at the University of Tartu and the Tallinn University of Technology.[1] In the summer of 1941, during the Soviet occupation, he hid in a forest to avoid the mobilization.[1] Männil joined the political police of the Estonian Self-Administration as an assistant in September 1941. He held the position until June 10, 1942, when he was fired for unknown reasons. [1] This period of collaboration with the Nazi government would later lead to Männil being accused of war crimes. After being fired, Männil continued his studies at the University of Tartu. In October 1943 he escaped to Finland when the German Security Service began to consider him politically dangerous as a student leader at the university. [1] [3] In Finland he studied business management in Helsinki.[4] Männil was accused by a local police official of illegal trade in gold and valuables brought to Finland by Estonian refugees. These claims were, however, denied by Männil.[1] Männil moved to Sweden in September 1944 with the intention of continuing his studies. He stayed at a refugee camp for a short while. Soon he received a residence permit to live in Stockholm and a working permit that allowed him to take a job at an archive. In November 1944, a complaint regarding Männil's Nazi involvement was filed at the Swedish Commission of Foreigners, and he was investigated by the Sandler Commission. [1] [5] The relative ease with which Männil received his work and residence permits raised the suspicions of the local authorities. In September 1945, he was fired from his job at the request of the Commission of Foreigners. A month later, an extension to his residence permit was declined.[1] Männil was allowed to stay in Stockholm to make preparations for his emigration to Venezuela, and an extension was granted on his residence permit a short while later. After Männil was denied a transit visa to Britain, the Swedish authorities pressured him to leave the country.[5]

February-2010 John Ruan (businessman)

John Ruan (February 11, 1914 — February 14, 2010) was the former Chairman and CEO of The Ruan Companies and Chairman Emeritus of the World Food Prize. At the Ruan Companies, Ruan represented a diversified group of businesses with activities that include transportation, commercial banking, financial services, international trading and real estate development.[1] In his native Iowa, Ruan was a major contributor in business and the development of the Des Moines metropolitan area. In the early 1970s, Ruan built the 36 story Ruan Center to house the administration of the growing number of Ruan companies. Ruan built the 33-story Marriott Hotel in 1980 and the 14-story Two Ruan Center in 1982. He was active in the development and building of the Des Moines Convention Center in 1985 as well as several parking ramps in the downtown area. Ruan also owned Bankers Trust Company, the largest independent bank in Iowa. Ruan funded ongoing research at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Lukes MS Clinic in Chicago and also sponsored the Ruan Neuroscience Center at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. One of the top-ranked facilities of its kind, the Center provides quality care for people around the globe. Ruan began his trucking company in 1932 with only one truck. This small business grew into Ruan Transportation Management Systems, which is now one of the nation's largest trucking operations. Internationally, Ruan founded the Iowa Export-Import Trading Company, a business involving over 50 nations around the world. He was the subject of a 2003 biography, In for the Long Haul: The Life of John Ruan, by historian William B. Fredericks. Ruan died on February 14, 2010, three days after his 96th birthday. Ruan was survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth Jayne Adams; two sons, John III and Thomas; six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. His daughter, Jayne, died in 1992, at the age of 44.

March-2010 1)Jerry York (businessman)

Born Jerome Bailey York June 22, 1938(1938-06-22)[1] Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. Died March 18, 2010(2010-03-18) (aged 71)[1] Pontiac, Michigan, U.S. Jerome Bailey York (June 22, 1938 – March 18, 2010), commonly known as Jerry York, was an American businessman, and the Chairman, President and CEO of Harwinton Capital. He was the former CFO of IBM [1] and Chrysler, and was CEO of Micro Warehouse. He was a chief aide to Kirk Kerkorian and his Tracinda investment company.[1] In February 2006, Kerkorian helped elect York to the board of directors of General Motors, from which he had previously resigned.[1] York was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1938[1] and lived in Oakland Township, Michigan. He earned degrees from the United States Military Academy at West Point,[1] the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[1] and the University of Michigan,[1] and was trained as an engineer. A gymnastics injury prevented York from serving in the military.[2] York eventually became the CFO at Chrysler. When Lee Iacocca retired as Chrysler CEO in 1992, York was a leading candidate to succeed him.[3] After being passed over as Chrysler CEO, York became CFO of IBM Corporation. He later served as a special adviser to investor Kirk Kerkorian during Kerkorian's 2007 failed takeover bid for Chrysler and his other investments in Ford Motor Company and General Motors where he previously served as a board member from February to October 2006 before resigning over frustration resulting from GM's failure to distribute materials to the Board in advance of its meetings and a reluctance to implement change recommendations, including the shedding of peripheral brands,[4] which GM ultimately affected during bankruptcy in the form of terminating the Pontiac, Saturn, and Hummer brands (after a failed sale attempt to Chinese Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery) and the sale of its SAAB division to Dutch "Hypercar" maker Spyker.[5] From 1999 to 2003, York was Chairman and CEO of Micro Warehouse,[6] which went bankrupt. He was also on the board of Apple, Inc. after Steve Jobs' comeback in 1997. [7] [7] York was also an enthusiast of alternative energy, particularly wind energy. He was the CFO and a Member of the Board at USWind, a wind energy company of which he was a co-founder and active management team member. York was also part of a team developing the next generation portable computer. York was hospitalized on March 17, 2010 after collapsing in his suburban Detroit home from a brain aneurysm.[8] He died the next day.[1] 2)Dan Duncan

Dan Duncan originally from Houston and still living there at the time of his passing, was a very successful business man in his own right whose death on Sunday March 28th at the age 77 shocked so many people who liked, adored and loved the guy. The news of his death came from a close source acting on behalf of his company Enterprise Products Partners LP. As of yet no one knows the cause of his death but this will come to light when further tests and investigations get underway to determine the exact cause for his passing.. Dan Duncan was the richest man in Houston. Although we have no definite details on how Duncan died, we ask anyhow would his money have saved him. If he secretly was dying of cancer or some other killer disease then it's sad to think that all the money in the world can't save you. I believe when you have riches, and those riches run into billions then spend it or help others as you can't take it with you. This highly popular business tycoon's wealth accumulated to a staggering $9 billion. The whole Enterprise family grieves over his passing and trying to come to terms with the unexpected passing of Dan Duncan a dear friend and close business associate of so many people who will truly miss him. Michael Creel, president and chief executive officer of Enterprise Products said "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family." There are a lot of mixed emotions going on right now. Tears flow and then stop while relatives of the richest man in Houston try to put the pieces together and make sense of death. Duncan died at the family home in Houston on Sunday March 28th 2010 a spokesman for Enterprise Products Partners LP disclosed.

Dan Duncan was high up; he was chairman of the company that manages Enterprise Products Partners. The midstream energy giant owns approx 48,000 miles of natural gas, petrochemical and crude oil pipelines and 25 natural gas processing plants. Of course from this is how his wealth just grew and grew.

He was co founder of the Company in 1968 and took Enterprise Products Partners public in July 1998. He was ranked 74th on Forbes' recent global list of billionaires with an estimated net worth of $9 billion. Yesterday March 28th 2010 Dan Duncan the richest man in Houston died aged 77. R.I.P DD you will be sadly missed.

June-2010

FILE - In a Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 file photo, country singer and sausage icon Jimmy Dean is seen at his home in Varina, Va. Dean, a country music legend for his smash hit about a workingman hero, "Big Bad John," and an entrepreneur known for his sausage brand, died Sunday, June 13, 2010. He was 81.

RICHMOND, Va. — Jimmy Dean, a country music legend for his smash hit about a workingman hero, "Big Bad John," and an entrepreneur known for his sausage brand, died on Sunday. He was 81. His wife, Donna Meade Dean, said her husband died at their Henrico County, Va., home. She told The Associated Press that he had some health problems but was still functioning well, so his death came as a shock. She said he was eating in front of the television. She left the room for a time and came back and he was unresponsive. She said he was pronounced dead at 7:54 p.m. "He was amazing," she said. "He had a lot of talents." Born in 1928, Dean was raised in poverty in Plainview, Texas, and dropped out of high school after the ninth grade. He went on to a successful entertainment career in the 1950s and '60s that included the nationally televised "The Jimmy Dean Show." In 1969, Dean went into the sausage business, starting the Jimmy Dean Meat Co. in his hometown. He sold the company to Sara Lee Corp. in 1984. Dean lived in semiretirement with his wife, who is a songwriter and recording artist, on their 200-acre estate just outside Richmond, where he enjoyed investing, boating and watching the sun set over the James River. In 2009 a fire gutted their home, but his Grammy for "Big Bad John," a puppet made by Muppets creator Jim Henson, a clock that had belonged to Prince Charles and Princess Diana and other valuables were saved. Lost were a collection of celebrity-autographed books, posters of Dean with Elvis Presley and other prized possessions. Donna Meade Dean said the couple had just moved back into their reconstructed home.

July-2010 1)Brian Bell (businessman) Born 3 July 1928(1928-07-03) Chinchilla, Queensland, Australia

Died 26 July 2010(2010-07-26) (aged 82) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Cause of death Heart failure

Residence Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Other names :Mister B

Citizenship :Papua New Guinean

Education: Diploma in Pharmacy

Alma mater :Brisbane Central Technical College

Occupation: Company director

Years active :1948–2010

Organization: Brian Bell Group

Known for: Businessman, philanthropist

Spouse: Jean Clough nee Ferguson Bell studied pharmacy at the Brisbane Central Technical College, now the Queensland University of Technology. He moved to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in 1954 as a pharmaceutical chemist in the Bulk Medical Store and soon after established PNG’s first electrical retail outlet.

Bell's business expanded rapidly and Brian Bell and Company was established in 1961. It included department stores, home centres, chemicals, cleaning products and industrial equipment. The Brian Bell Group of Companies is the largest business of its kind in PNG, generating revenue of 253 million kina annually and employing 1300 staff.

Bell supported the Port Moresby General Hospital (where he was Chairman of the Board), the Red Cross and the Port Moresby City Mission. He also served as deputy lord mayor of Port Moresby, a member of the PNG lands board, the Salvation Army advisory board and the PNG law and order committee. He was at one time chairman of UPNG Foundation, the NCD South Pacific Festival of Arts and the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal. Bell also served as patron of AIESEC PNG University. He set up a school outside Port Moresby, helped in offering scholarships and funded many needy and deserving young Papua New Guineans. Bell was Honorary Consul General in Papua New Guinea for Norway and Sweden and received the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit Knight 1st Class and Commander of the Order of the Polar Star (Sweden) for his service in those positions. He also received the PNG Community Service Medal, Queen’s Jubilee Medal, PNG Independence Medals and the Salvation Army’s Order of Distinguished Auxiliary Service. Bell was knighted for his contributions to business and charity.

2) George Steinbrenner Born: 7/4/1930

Birthplace: Rocky River, Ohio

Died: 7/13/2010 (Tampa, Fla.)

George Michael Steinbrenner III started his first business, raising chickens and selling their eggs, when he was in elementary school. He went on to Culver military academy, Williams College, and the U.S. Air Force, where he established a sports program and a food service business. Next came jobs as a high school and college football coach before he entered the family shipping business, Kinsman Marine Transit, in 1957. The same year he purchased his first pro franchise, a basketball team called the Cleveland Pipers—an investment that lost Steinbrenner millions. Undeterred, Steinbrenner showed his acumen by merging Kinsman with the American Shipbuilding Company and purchasing the New York Yankees for $10 million in 1973. Under his tough but effective leadership, the baseball team turned into an empire, winning seven World Series trophies. Banned from baseball twice during his tenure for ethical and legal violations, George Steinbrenner, "the Boss," never wavered from his commitment to be on top, saying "Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing." He died in Tampa, Fla. of a massive heart attack at age 80. When George Steinbrenner went away to school in ninth grade, he sold his egg business, the George Company, to his two younger sisters for $50. It took the S & J (Susan and Judy) Company two years to pay off the debt.

Augast-2010

E.L. “Boe” Williams died 29 AugastSunday after a long illness. He was 73 years old. Williams opened the Country Cobbler shoe store 46 years ago in Valdosta. He was also chairman of South Georgia’s Huxford Genealogical Society.

In terms of the region’s history, Williams is said to have known more about South Georgia families than anyone else in the region.

“Boe has been the heart and soul of the Huxford Genealogical Society and South Georgia/ North Florida genealogy for many years,” said Donald O. Davis of the Lowndes County Historical Society Museum and a fellow Huxford Society officer. “He gave tremendous amounts of time and made sure that Judge Folks Huxford’s series ‘Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia’ continued. Boe was known far and wide for his vast specific family knowledge in genealogy. He loved the stories of the pioneers, and knew of them as did Judge Huxford, that in building their lives, they built a nation.”

His interest in family histories may have stemmed from his own roots.

Williams described himself in a 2001 Times article as being part of “a large, multi- generational family. ... I stayed with my grandparents a lot. My great-grandmother lived with them, and she was one of 27 children.”

Family patriarch and Boe Williams’ great-great-grandfather, Andrew Elton Williams, lived from 1800-1873. From this number of children came 160 grandchildren.

Since 1903, the family has held a reunion in Waycross.

Based on his family, Williams wrote the book “Andrew Elton Williams: Ancestors, Contemporaries, Descendants and Allied Families.” Williams wrote numerous columns, articles, and other texts about regional families and history.

Boe Williams was born June 1, 1937, in Waycross. As a teenager, he moved to Florida.

He attended Florida State University. He opened his first shoe store in Tallahassee, Fla.

If history was his life, shoes were his livelihood. Williams once said, “I’ve been in the shoe business in one way or another since I was 13 years old.” In 1964, Edwin L. “Boe” Williams and his wife, the former Carolyn Barrientos, moved to Valdosta and opened the Country Cobbler shore store. The store was originally located in Downtown Valdosta.

The downtown business had only 2,000 square feet and stocked about 4,000 pairs of shoes. Business grew.

A second store at Five Points followed. Both stores combined into a Valdosta mall location until moving into the Country Cobbler site on Gornto Road.

Additional stores opened in Waycross, Jacksonville, Fla., and Gainesville, Fla.

Williams earned the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southeast Shoe Travelers and National Shoe Charity in the late 1990s.

Though the stores grew and business expanded, Boe Williams strived for a personal touch in his stores.

“Department stores are a mile wide and an inch deep,” Williams is quoted as saying in Footwear News in 2000. “Specialty stores are a mile deep and an inch wide. We’re somewhere in between. We’ve created a personality in the store.”

Carolyn helped with the store daily. She passed away Aug. 31, 2003. Boe Williams passed away two days short of the seventh anniversary of Carolyn’s death. Williams had since remarried wife Carol.

His son Cason followed in Boe’s footsteps at Country Cobbler.

Named for the late Judge Folks Huxford, the Huxford Genealogical Society’s continued success owes much to Williams’ efforts.

The story goes that, several years ago, Williams sought family history and was sent to see Huxford. Williams found the judge eating in a Homerville restaurant. The two men spoke at great length during that first meeting and developed a friendship. Williams later helped Huxford create the society.

Williams was a man who looked for positive outcomes. “I like win-win situations rather than win-lose situations,” he said in 2001. “Most situations you run into, somebody wins, and somebody loses.”

September-2010

Longtime Alma businessman Fred G. Brown dies

Alma businessman Fred G. Brown, 57, died 13th September Monday at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor.

Born in 1953, Brown was a longtime member of the local business community. He started out working for Graph Ads and then opened Brown Printing Service in 1983.

A member of the Alma Elks Lodge, Gratiot Country Club and Pine River Country Club, he also served on the board of the Gratiot Area Chamber of Commerce.

October-2010 1)Kilian Hennessy (February 19, 1907 – October 1, 2010) was an Irish business magnate and patriarch of the Hennessy cognac company. [1] Kilian Hennessy was a direct, fifth generation descendent of Richard Hennessy, who founded Hennessy in 1765.[1] He became the CEO of Hennessy during the 1970s and spearheaded the 1971 merger with the Moët et Chandon champagne company.[1] The merger resulted in the creation of Moët Hennessy.[1] Moët Hennessy, in turn, became a part of the newly LVMH in 1987, becoming Moët-Hennessy • Louis Vuitton. Hennessy remained a member of the luxury group's advisory board until his death in 2010.[1] Hennessy died in Switzerland on October 1, 2010, at the age of 103.[1] He was a resident of Saint- Brice, Charente, France, and his death was reported by the commune's mayor, André Pelletant. [1] 2) Birmingham businessman Hall Thompson dead at 87

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) – The founder of Thompson Tractor Company and developer of the Shoal Creek Country Club died on Wednesday morning. Hall Thompson died at the age of 87. Thompson was known for founding the Thompson Tractor Company in 1957. The heavy equipment company eventually became one of the leading companies of its kind. He also helped to develop the Shoal Creek Country Club, which hosted the PGA Championship in 1984 and 1990. Thompson was the subject of a strong controversy after he was quoted as saying the golf club could not be forced into accepting black members. Thompson has denied the quote and the club now accepts black members, former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice being one member of note. Recently, Shoal Creek announced the hosting of the Regions Tradition, a golf championship with the Champions Tour.