Southwest Airlines co-founder Rollin King dies at 83 - Dallas Morning News

Businessman Rollin King, who brought the idea of Southwest Airlines Co. to his attorney, Herb Kelleher, in 1967, died Thursday in Dallas at age 83.

King was a San Antonio businessman when he sat down with Kelleher to sketch out the idea for an intra-Texas airline. The idea turned into Air Southwest. By the time all the legal battles had been fought and the airline began flying on June 18, 1971, the company had been renamed Southwest Airlines.

Today, it carries more passengers in the United States than any other carrier.

“I am indeed profoundly saddened to learn of Rollin’s passing. His idea to create a low cost-low fare, better-service-quality airline in Texas subsequently proved to be an empirical role model for not only the U.S. as a whole but, ultimately, for all of the world’s inhabited continents,” Kelleher said in a statement.

“The people of Southwest Airlines grieve with Rollin’s family; mourn his absence; and thank him for his vision. God bless Rollin King!” Kelleher said.

Southwest confirmed King’s death “with heavy heart.”

“The extended family of Southwest Airlines employees and retirees shares in the loss of Rollin King and honors the legacy of affordable air travel he sparked more than 40 years ago,” said Gary Kelly, Southwest chairman, president and chief executive.

President emeritus Colleen Barrett told Southwest employees in a note Friday that King “suffered a severe stroke about a year ago and the damage done by that stroke began an irreversible process.” She said King “passed away peacefully.”

While Kelleher looms large over the length of Southwest’s history, King’s role has often been obscured — a fact that sometimes irritated King.

“Regardless of what anybody else said, Herb was my attorney when I formed the company,” King said in a 2007 interview.

King had operated an intrastate taxi carrier flying small airplanes, Wild Goose Flying Service, which was unsuccessful. He said in the 2007 interview that in 1966 he began thinking about starting a scheduled carrier focused on Texas cities.

But his part in Southwest’s past is little known to most, and he acknowledged that that omission has irked him.

“Well, it has bothered me. But there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’ve tried to stop worrying about it,” he said. “But, you know, only the old people at Southwest know I even exist.”

The official myth is that King and Kelleher were at a San Antonio bar when they used a cocktail napkin to sketch out a map of Southwest’s proposed route system: a triangle linking San Antonio, Dallas and Houston.

In the official telling of the story, King laid out his plan and Kelleher allegedly responded: “Rollin, you’re crazy. Let’s do it.” In reality, King said, Kelleher’s initial response wasn’t favorable.

“The fact of the matter was that Herb was trying to talk me out of the airline,” King said. “He didn’t think it was a good idea, at the very early, early, early” stage.

As to the map drawn on a napkin, King told The Dallas Morning News there was never any such napkin. “No, never did it,” King acknowledged.

But if the hand-drawn map was a myth, the route system it described became reality: Southwest’s first flights did link Dallas to San Antonio and to Houston. The third leg, San Antonio-Houston, began Nov. 14, 1971.

In early 1971, King and Kelleher hired airline veteran Lamar Muse to run the company. King remained active as executive vice president of operations, but he and Muse increasingly came into conflict.

In his 2002 autobiography Southwest Passage, Muse wrote that he pushed King out of his job in early 1976. King opted to fly as a Southwest pilot until 1978.

King served on the airline’s board of directors for 39 years, from its incorporation in 1967 until his May 2006 retirement from the board.

According to Southwest, King was involved in executive education and consulting as the principal of Rollin King Associations from Jan. 1, 1989, until his retirement on Dec. 31, 1995. At one time, he also operated the King Sporting Agency.

Arrangements are pending with Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home in Dallas.

Follow Terry Maxon on Twitter at @tmaxon.

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