Leonard Samuel Shoen (February 29, 1916 – October 4, 1999) was an American entrepreneur who founded the

U-Haul U-Haul is an American moving truck, trailer, and self-storage rental company, based in Phoenix, Arizona, that has been in operation since 1945. The company was founded by Leonard Shoen in Ridgefield, Washington, who began it in the garage ...

truck and trailer organization in Ridgefield,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. After growing up in the farm belt during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, he envisioned the market for rental vehicles for families who wished to avoid the expense of professional transfer and storage companies and move around the country.

Early life

Shoen (pronounced "shown") was born on February 29, 1916, in

McGrath McGrath or MacGrath derives from the Irish surname Mac Craith and is occasionally noted with a space: e.g. Izzy Mc Grath. In Ireland, it is pronounced "Ma Grah". In Australia and New Zealand it is pronounced ''MuhGrah''. Notable people with the su ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, to Sophie (née Appert) and Samuel J. Shoen. His father moved the family to

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

in 1923 to farm in the Willamette Valley near Shedd. His father was ethnically Scottish and English; his mother was of Swiss and French descent. Shoen worked his way through

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

by running a chain of beauty parlors and barber shops in Corvallis and nearby Albany, and later at

Camp Adair Camp Adair was a United States Army division training facility established north of Corvallis, Oregon, operating from 1942 to 1946. During its peak period of use, the camp was home to approximately 40,000 persons — enough to have constituted ...

north of Corvallis and at the

Hanford Reservation The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including SiteW ...

in Washington. Sam earned a B.Sc. in General Science (a

pre-med Pre-medical (often referred to as pre-med) is an educational track that undergraduate students in the United States pursue prior to becoming medical students. It involves activities that prepare a student for medical school, such as pre-med course ...

degree) from OSC in 1943, and entered the

University of Oregon Medical School Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded in 1887 as the University of Oregon Med ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

. Shoen was suspended from medical school during his fourth year after he "called out present during a roll-call for an absent classmate", and never returned. Shoen served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

as a Hospital Apprentice First Class in

Bayview, Idaho Bayview is an unincorporated community in the northwest United States, located in Kootenai County, Idaho, north of Coeur d'Alene. On the southwest shore of Lake Pend Oreille, Bayview is east-northeast of Athol. The community is served by Stat ...

and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, and was given a medical discharge in 1945 for

rheumatic fever Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection. Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful jo ...

.L.S. Shoen, ''You and Me'', AMERCO Inc., 1980, (no ISBN) pp. 1-5, 14, 25-26, 186, 187, 218.Luke Krueger, ''A Noble Function: How U-Haul Moved America'', Barricade Books Inc., 2007, ; p 9-14, 24, 50-51, 132-133, 177. After starting the U-Haul Company, Shoen earned an

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

at the Northwestern College of Law, later known as the

Lewis & Clark Law School The Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College (also known as Lewis & Clark Law School), is an American Bar Association-approved private law school in Portland, Oregon. The law school received ABA approval in 1970 and joined the As ...

, in Portland in 1955.

Founder of U-Haul

Shoen began his career as a barber while attending

in the years leading up to World War II. UHI DC5692

In 1945, at the age of 29, Shoen co-founded U-Haul with his wife, Anna Mary Carty (1922–1957), in

Ridgefield, Washington Ridgefield is a city in northern Clark County, Washington, Clark County, Washington (state), Washington. The population was 10,319 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 4,763 in 2010 United States census, 2010, making ...

, just north of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. Anna Mary was the mother of Shoen's first six children. The company was started with an investment of $5,000. In the early years, the Shoens routinely worked 16-hour days and reinvested all their earnings back into the business. He began building rental trailers at the Carty Ranch in Ridgefield, owned by his parents-in-law, and splitting the fees for their use with

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

owners whom he franchised as agents. The first U-Haul Rental Agent was a

Mobil Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999. ...

station on Interstate St. in Portland. These early deals were based on little more than a wink and a nod. He developed one-way rentals and enlisted investors as partners in each trailer as methods of growth. In 1951, Shoen reorganized the U-Haul Trailer Rental Company under a new holding company, ARCOA (Associated Rental Companies of America) Inc. By 1955, there were more than 10,000 U-Haul trailers on the road and the brand was nationally known. The corporate offices were in Portland, until a 1967 relocation to

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. While distracted to some extent by growing his business, Shoen also managed multiple marriages after the death of his first wife from a congenital heart defect, and eventually had a total of 12 children, each of whom he made a stockholder. Shoen married Suzanne Gilbaugh in 1958, and they had five more children. Shoen divorced Gilbaugh, and married Suzanne Whitmore in 1978 to have one last child. Some observers say that Shoen saw it as his duty to confer upon his children the fruits of his labors, others say it was to avoid taxes. In either case, he had transferred all but 2% of control to his children when two of them, Joe and Mark, launched a successful takeover of the business in 1986. In the 1960s, Shoen diversified his holdings by creating AMERCO Inc., from Advanced Management Engineering and Research Company. He pronounced the acronym, "a miracle". AMERCO remains the parent company of U-Haul and related businesses which support U-Haul operations, and is publicly traded.

Personal life and death

Shoen resided in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. He died on October 4, 1999, at the age of 83, when he crashed his car into a telephone pole near his

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the Southern Nevada, southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Stat ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, home in what the

Clark County Coroner Clark County is located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,265,461. Most of the county population resides in the Las Vegas Census County Divisions, which hold 1,771,945 people as of the 2010 Census, across ...

's office ruled a suicide. Shoen was survived by his fifth wife, Carol, and all his children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shoen, Leonard 1916 births 1999 deaths People from Aitkin County, Minnesota Businesspeople from Las Vegas American transportation businesspeople Lewis & Clark Law School alumni Oregon State University alumni Road incident deaths in Nevada Suicides in Nevada American people of Scottish descent American people of English descent American people of Swiss descent American people of French descent 20th-century American businesspeople Shoen family American company founders People from Ridgefield, Washington United States Navy corpsmen 1999 suicides

Early life

Founder of U-Haul

Personal life and death

See also

References