Johnnie Bryan Hunt, Sr. (February 28, 1927 – December 7, 2006), better known as J. B. Hunt, was an American entrepreneur who founded J.B. Hunt Transport Services, the largest publicly owned trucking company in the US. The company is based in Lowell, Arkansas.

Personal background

Hunt was born in

Heber Springs, Arkansas Heber Springs is a city in and the county seat of Cleburne County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 7,165 at the 2010 census. Geography Heber Springs is located near the center of Cleburne County at (35.494329, −92.039168). Arkansa ...

. Growing up during the Great Depression put a large strain on him. His first job was working for his uncle at a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. After a stint in the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, Hunt spent the 1950s as a

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

salesman,

auctioneer An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition exi ...

, and

truck driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

before starting a

rice hulls Rice hulls (or rice husks) are the hard protecting coverings of grains of rice. In addition to protecting rice during the growing season, rice hulls can be put to use as building material, fertilizer, insulation material, or fuel. Rice hulls are p ...

business with his wife Johnelle in 1961. His first attempt at the trucking business was not successful. He lost roughly $19,000. He returned to the trucking industry in 1969, with five tractors and seven trailers. Hunt was known for his generosity, and carried a money clip containing $100 bills, which he would hand out to people he felt could use the money.

Retirement

Hunt began to remove himself from the company when he stepped down as president in 1982 but was still a fixture in the company and remained chairman of the board until 1995. On December 31, 2004, Hunt retired from the company but remained its largest shareholder. Although retired, Hunt visited the headquarters located in Lowell, Arkansas, frequently to shake hands and converse with employees. He regularly telephoned the executive assistants to ask "What's the stock doing, Darling?" In 2005, Springdale Public Schools opened a new elementary school named after Hunt. The Hunt family donated the land for the school, valued in excess of $500,000. This K-5 elementary school is located on Silent Grove Road in

Springdale, Arkansas Springdale is the fourth-largest city in Arkansas, United States. It is located in both Washington and Benton counties in Northwest Arkansas. Located on the Springfield Plateau deep in the Ozark Mountains, Springdale has long been an important i ...

. Hunt was a frequent visitor to the school after it opened. In early 2006, Hunt bought the site of the abandoned

Superconducting Super Collider The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) (also nicknamed the desertron) was a particle accelerator complex under construction in the vicinity of Waxahachie, Texas. Its planned ring circumference was with an energy of 20 TeV per proton and was ...

Waxahachie Waxahachie ( ) is the seat of government of Ellis County, Texas, United States. Its population was 41,140 in 2020. Etymology Some sources state that the name means "cow" or "buffalo" in an unspecified Native American language. One possible ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, for $6.5 million, hoping to turn it into a secure data storage facility. His death at a hospital in

, on December 7, 2006, after sustaining a head injury in a fall on ice five days earlier, put an end to this project. The property was sold to the chemical company Magnablend for $5 million in 2012.

Awards and honors

*1993: Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...

*2001: Arkansas Business Hall of Fame *2016: Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ (CSCMP) Hall of Fame

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Johnnie Bryan 1927 births 2006 deaths Accidental deaths from falls United States Army soldiers American trucking industry businesspeople American corporate directors People from Heber Springs, Arkansas Accidental deaths in Arkansas Businesspeople from Arkansas 20th-century American businesspeople