A man in full

Jim Young, the retired chairman and former chief executive of Union Pacific, is dead at 61 of pancreatic cancer. It's a vicious disease that is rarely detected before it spreads to other organs; then it is incurable. Through good care and stout heart, Jim was lucky (if you call it that) to live almost two years after his diagnosis. He had given up the CEO job immediately after learning of his illness and retired as chairman of the board nine days before his death.

Raised in Omaha and educated at the University of Nebraska, Young knew only one employer as an adult, so far as I can determine. Joining UP in 1978, he worked his way steadily up the ladder of vice presidencies, becoming chief financial officer in 1999, president in 2004, CEO in 2005 and chairman in 2007. Here was a class act. "He was the best boss I ever had," says Mike Hemmer, the retired vice president of law. "I feel honored to have worked for UP during his era of integrity, openness, and vision."

Young was elevated to the presidency after a dark chapter in the company's history. In 2003, UP hired few if any new train and engine employees and continued not to hire them in its Western Region into mid 2004. Then the railroad seized up in a combination of a business boom and severe crew shortage, initially in the Western Region, then systemwide. The lost revenue and added expenses came to hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2003 UP hit an earnings per share benchmark that triggered the forgiveness of millions of dollars of loans to the railroad's top officers. Was this a coincidence? You tell me.

That wasn't the way Jim Young governed. I've heard him described any number of ways. Allow me to synthesize what I've heard and observed: Pre-Jim Young, Union Pacific was a great company but less than it could be. It was everybody for himself. What Young did was try to bend the culture of Union Pacific, from what's in it for me to what's in it for us. To quote Hemmer: "He inspired all of us to believe we could be transformationally excellent, yet remain genuine. UP was one of the best places in America to work from 2005 to 2012 because of the tone he set at top top." Frankly, I've never seen a chief executive described in such a, yes, loving manner. But what Mike says is totally consistent with everything else I know about the man.

I interviewed Jim several times by phone, but in person only once. We sat, barely two feet across from one another, in UP's Washington office. I don't remember the questions I asked in that interview, or his answers. What I will never forget is the translucense of the skin on his face and the intensity of his pale blue eyes; they drilled right into me. I cannot imagine anyone talking one on one with Jim Young and not being truthful.

But did he succeed in bending the culture? Certainly for the short term. We'll only know many years from now whether the change was forever.--Fred W. Frailey