B. Ray Thompson

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B. Ray Thompson (born June 27, 1906 in Elgin , † October 22, 1987 in Knoxville ), full Buster Ray Thompson , was an American entrepreneur in the mining and coal and steel industry.

Life

B. Ray Thompson grew up as the son of a sawmill owner in Elgin, Scott County, in a remote region of the Appalachian Mountains . After completing his school career, Thompson first worked for his father before moving to Knoxville with his first wife and two sons in 1941 and starting to work as a salesman for the Garland Coal Company. There he rose to the management level, but left the company after a few years to become an independent entrepreneur in the mining industry. With the funds generated from various investments, Thompson acquired the mining company Shamrock Coal Company and the coke producer Jewell Smokeless Coke in the 1960s . In the years that followed, both companies grew into large-scale operations, to which an automation process in coke production, filed for patenting in 1975, also contributed.

In 1979, Thompson and his two sons, who are now part of the group, founded the Elk River Resources Inc. holding , which merged Shamrock Coal and Jewell. Elk River, in turn, was sold by the Thompson family to the Sun Company that same year for about $ 300 million . Thompson invested part of the proceeds in the United American Bank (UAB) in Knoxville, which had to file for bankruptcy on February 14, 1983. Thompson lost about $ 40 million in the process; however, still held a personal fortune of $ 160 million in 1984, according to Forbes .

In the early 1980s, Thompson established a foundation, initially known as the BR Thompson Charitable Trust (BRTCT) and later renamed the Elgin Foundation , to promote health care and education in rural Appalachian regions. Thompson also sponsored the University of Tennessee and financed the construction of the building named after him and the university president Dr. Edward J. Boling named Thompson-Boling Arena with five million dollars. Before his death on October 22, 1987, he had used $ 100 million of his fortune to build a cancer research and treatment center in Knoxville, the Thompson Cancer Survival Center .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Jesse Fox Mayshark: Knoxville's Coal Baron. In: Metro Pulse Online. Metro Pulse , May 25, 2000, accessed June 20, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b About Us; The Thompson Family. Elgin Children's Foundation, accessed June 20, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Patents by Inventor Buster Ray Thompson; Patent number: 4067462. Justia Corporate Center, accessed June 20, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Cartel Restriction Act: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, Second Session, on HR 4661 ... June 24 and 26, 1980 . US Government Printing Office, 1981, pp. 286 (English, 427 pp.).
  5. ^ Marius S. Vassiliou: The A to Z of the Petroleum Industry . Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-7066-6 , pp. 388 (English, 716 pp.).
  6. ↑ Peter Kerr: A Father's Dream, a Son's Nightmare . In: The New York Times . October 24, 1993, p. S3; 1 (English, full text ).
personal data
SURNAME Thompson, B. Ray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thompson, Buster Ray (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Elgin (Tennessee)
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1987
Place of death Knoxville, Tennessee