Rather than going to school, Simplot started a hog farm, and fed his hogs on potatoes.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Simplot, which makes McDonald's french fries, has given the chain a 40% discount on corn kernels.

FORBES: Beyond Burgers

Fellow billionaire John Simplot, inventor of the frozen French fry, never even finished high school.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Mr Simplot was unstuffy: he often answered the telephone himself and his number was never ex-directory.

ECONOMIST: Jack Simplot

And candidates for his job, though they like Mr Simplot's generosity, reject his house.

ECONOMIST: But will Idaho's governor live there?

"We had a lab that came up with the frozen french fry and I patented it, " Simplot says.

FORBES: Some Billionaires Choose School Of Hard Knocks

In other respects, too, Mr Simplot departed from the usual heroic script.

ECONOMIST: Jack Simplot

Mr Simplot's success had the traditional ingredients: hard work, thrift, enterprise, readiness to take risks and a shrewd ability to assess an opportunity.

ECONOMIST: Jack Simplot

High school dropout and native of the Midwest John Simplot (pictured above left) bought and sold hogs in his youth after moving to Idaho from Iowa at an early age.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Mr Simplot himself, an avowed lover of skiing, duck shooting and the great outdoors, was attacked in the 1970s for his support for new coal-fired electricity plants along the Snake river and for a scheme to generate hydro-power by diverting water from another river into a vast underground tube.

ECONOMIST: Jack Simplot