H Ross Perot

Billionaire businessman who twice entered the US presidential race

H Ross Perot, US presidential candidate and businessman. Born: 27 June, 1930 in Texarkana, Texas. Died: 9 July, 2019 in Dallas, Texas, aged 89

HRoss Perot rose from a childhood of Depression-era poverty to become a self-made billionaire who twice ran for president with a mixture of folksy sayings and simple solutions to America’s problems. His 19 per cent of the vote in 1992 stands among the best showings by an independent candidate in the past century.

Perot died of leukaemia at his home in Dallas surrounded by his family. He was 89.

After attending the US Naval Academy and becoming a salesman for IBM, he set out on his own – creating and building Electronic Data Systems Corp. Yet the most famous event in his business career didn’t involve sales and earnings; he financed a private commando raid in 1979 to free two EDS employees who were being held in a prison in Iran. The venture was turned into a book and a movie.

Perot first became known to Americans outside of business circles by claiming that the US government left behind hundreds of American soldiers who were missing or imprisoned at the end of the Vietnam War.

Perot fanned the issue at home and discussed it privately with Vietnamese officials in the 1980s, angering the Reagan administration. Looking out for the healthcare needs of veterans became a long-time concern of Perot.

Perot’s wealth, fame and confident prescription for the nation’s economic ills propelled his 1992 campaign against President George HW Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton.

He briefly led in public opinion polls that summer, but stunningly he pulled out of the race, saying he did so to stop a Republican plot to sabotage his daughter’s wedding.

He eventually re-entered the race, but his reputation had suffered. Critics said he had a penchant for embracing conspiracy theories. His poll numbers faded from a peak of nearly 40 per cent, and he finished third.

Still, Perot recorded the highest percentage for an independent or third-party candidate since President Theodore Roosevelt’s second-place

showing in 1912. During the campaign, Perot spent $63.5 million of his own money. He bought 30-minute television spots during which he used charts and graphs to make his points, summarizing them with a line that became a national catch phrase: “It’s just that simple.”

Perot’s second campaign four years later was far less successful. He was shut out of presidential debates when organisers said he lacked sufficient support. He got just eight per cent of the vote, and the Reform Party that he founded began to fall apart.

However, Perot’s ideas on trade and deficit reduction remained part of the political landscape. He blamed both major parties for running up a huge federal budget deficit and allowing American jobs to be sent to other countries. The movement of US jobs to Mexico, he said, created a “giant sucking sound”.

Perot continued to speak out about federal spending for many years. In 2008, he launched a website to highlight the nation’s debt with a ticker that tracked the rising total, a blog and a chart presentation.

His father was a cotton broker, his mother a secretary. Perot said his family survived the Depression relatively well through hard work and by managing their money carefully.

His first job was delivering newspapers in a poor, mostly black part of town from his pony. He said when the newspaper tried to cut his commission, he complained to the publisher – and won.

From Texarkana, Perot went to the US Naval Academy even though he had never been on a ship or seen the ocean. After the Navy, Perot joined International Business Machines in 1955 and quickly became a top salesman.

In 1962, with $1,000 from his wife, Margot, Perot founded Electronic Data Systems. Hardware accounted for about 80 per cent of the computer business, Perot said, and IBM wasn’t interested in the other 20 per cent, including services.

Many of the early hires at EDS were former military men, and they had to abide by Perot’s strict dress code – white shirts, ties, no beards or moustaches – and long workdays. Many wore crewcuts like Perot.

The company’s big break came in the mid-1960s when the federal government created Medicare and Medicaid, the health programs for seniors, the disabled and the poor. States needed help in running the programs, and EDS won contracts – starting in Texas – to handle the millions of claims.

EDS first sold stock to the public in 1968, and overnight, Perot was worth $350 million. His fortune doubled and tripled as the stock price rose.

In 1984, he sold control of the company to General Motors Corp. for $2.5 billion and received $700 million in a buyout. In 2008, EDS was sold to Hewlett-packard Co.

Perot went on to establish another computer-services company, Perot Systems Corp. He retired as CEO in 2000 and was succeeded by his son, Ross Perot Jr. In 2009, Dell Inc. bought Perot Systems.

In September 2011, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $3.5 billion.

Perot was not immune to mistakes in business, however. His biggest might have been a 1971 investment in dupont Glore Forgan, then one of the biggest brokerage houses on Wall Street. The Nixon administration asked Perot to save the company to head off an investor panic, and he also poured money into another troubled brokerage, Walston & Co, but wound up losing much of his $100 million investment.

It was during the Nixon administration that Perot became involved in the issue of US prisoners of war in Southeast Asia. Perot said Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asked him to lead a campaign to improve treatment of POWS held in North Vietnam. Perot chartered two jets to fly medical supplies and the wives of POWS to Southeast Asia. They were not allowed into North Vietnam, but the trip attracted enormous media attention.

In 1979, the Iranian government jailed two EDS executives and Perot vowed to win their release.

“Ross came to the prison one day and said, ‘We’re going to get you out,”’ one of the men, Paul Chiapparone, told The Associated Press. “How many CEOS would do that today?”

Perot recruited retired US Army Special Forces Colonel Arthur “Bull” Simons to lead a commando raid on the prison. A few days later, the EDS executives walked free after the Shah’s regime fell and mobs stormed the prison. Simons’ men sneaked the executives out of the country and into Turkey. The adventure was recalled in Ken Follett’s bestselling book On Wings of Eagles and a TV mini-series.

In later years, Perot pushed the Veterans Affairs Department to study neurological causes of Gulf War syndrome, a mysterious illness reported by many soldiers who served in the 1991 conflict. He scoffed at officials who blamed the illnesses on stress and paid for additional research.

Perot received a special award for his support of veterans and the military in 2009.

In Texas, Perot led commissions on education reform and crime. He received many honorary degrees and awards.

While he worked at Perot Systems in suburban Dallas, entire hallways were filled with memorabilia from soldiers and POWS that Perot had helped. His personal office was dominated by large paintings of his wife and five children and bronze sculptures by Frederic Remington.

Several original Norman Rockwell paintings hung in the waiting area. Perot told a visiting reporter that he tried to live by Rockwell’s ethics of hard, honest work and family. DAVID KOENIG