Gary Hoover
Gary Hoover has founded several businesses, each with the core value of education. He founded BOOKSTOP, the first chain of book superstores, which was purchased by Barnes & Noble and became the nucleus for their chain. He co-founded the company that became Hoover’s, Inc. – one of the world’s largest sources of information about companies, now owned by Dun & Bradstreet. Gary Hoover has in recent years focused on writing (multiple books, blogs) and teaching. He served as the first Entrepreneur-In-Residence at the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business. He has been collecting information on business history since the age of 12, when he started subscribing to Fortune Magazine. An estimated 40% of his 57,000-book personal library is focused on business, industrial, and economic history and reference. Gary Hoover has given over 1000 speeches around the globe, many about business history, and all with historical references.
The Ultimate Rags to Riches Story: Mary Pickford
On February 11, 1898, John Charles Smith of Toronto hit
his head and died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The Irishman left behind his wife,
Charlotte; five-year-old daughter, Gladys; another daughter, Lottie;...
Proud Father of the Modern Airline System: CR Smith and American Airlines
Few industries have had a greater impact on the world than
our airline system. This global network was built over a period of forty years
by a handful of leaders who...
The Unsung Story of the Greatest Industrial Designer
Outside of the field of
product and transportation design, too few people know who Raymond Loewy was. The
best-known industrial designer, founder of the industrial design profession,
and member of the pantheon...
Gail Borden: Texas Pioneer, Quirky Visionary
Born in upstate New York in 1801, Gail Borden was raised there and in Kentucky and Indiana. As a young man, he moved to Mississippi and then Texas in...
Henry J. Kaiser: California Dreamer, Workers’ Friend
First building roads in Washington State, he soon helped build the western infrastructure, including Hoover Dam and Grand Coulee Dam. He played a key role in America’s victory in World War II by building hundreds of warships at an unprecedented pace. He also created aluminum and steel industries on the West Coast, doing more to bring manufacturing to California than anyone else.
James J Hill: Empire Builder without Peer
Jim Hill left poverty in rural Ontario after his father died when the son was only fourteen years old. He landed in St. Paul, Minnesota, where over the next fifty years he did more to shape the northwestern United States than any other single person. This is his story.
