<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by westhillsat:
Dennis Washington owns it
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
33. Dennis Washington
By JOHN STUCKE of the Missoulian
Montana's self-made billionaire forged his economic empire the old way – building roads, mining copper and running a railroad.
Now he's a fixture on the Forbes magazine list of the richest 400.
In 1967 Dennis Washington borrowed $30,000 to buy a bulldozer, the beginning of his successful construction company.
Although he became rich operating his Missoula business, he didn't cement his powerful status as an industrialist until he bought and reopened the old Anaconda Co. mine in Butte in 1985.
With copper prices in the basement, Washington busted what was left of a once-powerful Butte mining union and halved an expensive work force into a lean moneymaker that is the envy of the industry.
Then the penny metal went through the roof. Washington made multiple millions, his managers and miners reaped fat profit-sharing checks and Butte's crumbling tax base received a needed boost.
As the risky mine venture paid, Washington turned to trains.
In 1987 he bought Montana's southern rail route, a 937-mile network stretching from east of Billings through Montana to Sandpoint, Idaho.
Burlington Northern divested itself of the line, and Washington turned his new Montana Rail Link into a competitive shipper of lumber, petroleum, ore, wheat and chemicals.
With these successful Montana businesses in hand, Washington made a failed attempt to gain control of Montana Power Co., a moved that would have returned control of the state's historical business powerhouses under the guidance of one person.
It never materialized and Washington quickly turned to other opportunities.
Among them was his rescue of Morrison Knudsen Corp. from bankruptcy in 1996, a move that bolstered his reputation as a takeover specialist of troubled firms.
Almost immediately the once-great construction firm that helped build Hoover Dam and nearly collapsed until Washington arrived, began to turn around. Today it is profitable.
He owns yachts and an island off the coast of British Columbia with a golf course.
In Missoula, his name adorns the state's top sport spot – Washington Grizzly Stadium, where football players thrill nearly 20,000 fans on autumn Saturdays.
When games are over, people flock to another Washington project – Reserve Street, where a new burst of chain stores are changing the retail shopping habits of western Montanans.
He has a shrewd circle of business friends and associates in Montana, where he calls home along with Palm Springs, Calif. In Montana, his combined businesses make him one of the largest employers in the state of Montana.
Dennis and Phyllis Washington also have established a philanthropic foundation with more than $12 million in assets. It gives money to education, youth activities, and senior citizen and human services groups.
|