|
|
|
|
|
|
"Bring me a picture of |
James W. Walter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Bring me a picture of |
James W. Walter |
| At the end of World War II, eleven
million young Americans returned home with dreams of
starting a family, owning their own home and living a
happy life. Among those millions of ordinary Americans
veterans was one James Willis Walter, a tall, slender
young man with broad shoulders, an open face, and a ready
smile. They called him "Slim Jim" in the navy;
back home in Tampa, on the west coast of Florida, he was
Jimmy to his friends. Returning from four long years in
the navy, he took up his pre-war job: driving a truck for
his father's citrus-packing firm. His pay was $50 a week.
In 1946 at the age of twenty-three, Jim Walter saw a two-line classified ad in a Tampa newspaper for an unfinished house selling for $895. He bought it and within three days sold it at a profit. He went into the business of selling unfinished houses that were to be completed by their owner, a do-it-yourself concept that made well-built homes very affordable. Over the next fifty years, his company, Jim Walter Homes, sold more than 320,000 single-family detached homes in twenty-four states - more than any other builder. The active mortgage portfolio on these homes grew to be worth more than $4 billion! From that humble beginning, Jim Walter guided the company that bore his name to more than $2.4 billion in annual sales and 25,000 employees nationwide at its peak. Jim Walter Corporation went on to diversify into building materials, marble quarries, coal mining, and water pipelines, and by the mid-1980s ranked among the two hundred largest industrial companies in the United States. Jim Walter is recognized internationally as an industrial leader. In 1960, he was named to LIFE magazine's list of the 100 Most Important Americans Under 40. In 1961, he was presented the Horatio Alger Award by the Association of American Schools and Colleges. In 1969, he was named International Prominent Citizen by the Association of Newspaper Managers. In 1973, he was awarded the Freedoms Foundation Exemplar Medal for advancing the cause of free enterprise. In 1978, he received the Harvard Business School Business-Citizen Award. In 1980, he was honored by the American Jewish Committee "in recognition of his creative leadership and dedicated efforts to enhance the quality of life in our society and to deepen a more human understanding among all Americans." In 1981, he was awarded one of Sweden's highest honors, Commander of the Order of the Polar Star, for his efforts in promoting trade and industrial development between Sweden and the United States. He has appeared on the covers of Business Week and Florida Trend, and has been profiled in Forbes, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, The Wall Street Journal and many other major publications. His dedication to civic and community involvement is
evidenced by years of support to Boys and Girls Clubs,
Goodwill Industries, The Salvation Army, the Tampa Bay
Performing Arts Center, Lowery Park Zoological Gardens,
Tampa General and St. Joseph's Hospitals, the Florida
Council on Economic Education, and Junior Achievement, to
name just a few. |
|
