![]() ![]() In 1981, after Putnam left to head Braniff Airways, he was appointed the full-time CEO and president, positions he held for 20 years. Kelleher was installed as chairman of the board in March of that year and the board appointed him as temporary CEO until hiring Howard Putnam as the new CEO and president. Lamar Muse was hired as CEO, but after struggles between Muse and King escalated over the next several years, Muse resigned in 1978. Reflecting back on that time Kelleher said, "I think my greatest moment in business was when the first Southwest airplane arrived after four years of litigation and I walked up to it and I kissed that baby on the lips and I cried." Kelleher's early involvement in the company was helping the company navigate legal concerns and as an advisor to the operation and later as general counsel. ![]() The first flights finally took off on June 18, 1971. After incorporating the company initially as "Air Southwest Co." in 1967, Kelleher and King faced four years of setbacks and legal challenges from competitors that culminated in winning key cases before the Supreme Court of the United States in December 1970 and the Supreme Court of Texas in June 1971. They originally devised a very simple plan of connecting the Texas Triangle with low-cost air service, patterned largely on California's Pacific Southwest Airlines. An often retold founding myth claimed the business plan was written out on a cocktail napkin in a San Antonio restaurant, though Kelleher and King have both stated that there was no literal cocktail napkin. Kelleher and one of his law clients, Texas businessman Rollin King, created the concept with banker John Parker that later became Southwest Airlines. He was a partner in Oppenheimer, Rosenberg, Kelleher & Wheatley, 1969–1981. Career Īfter clerking for a New Jersey Supreme Court justice, Kelleher moved to Texas intending to start a law firm or a business. ![]() He earned a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University where he was an Olin Scholar and where his major was English and his minor Philosophy, and a Juris Doctor (cum laude) from New York University School of Law where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar. Kelleher was born in Camden, New Jersey, on March 12, 1931, and raised in Audubon, New Jersey, where he graduated from Haddon Heights High School. He was the co-founder, later CEO, and chairman emeritus of Southwest Airlines until his death in 2019. Herbert David Kelleher (Ma– January 3, 2019) was an American billionaire airline businessman and lawyer. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |