Johnnie Bryan Hunt

Hunt was born in Cleburne County near Heber Springs, Arkansas. the business became the world's largest producer of poultry litter. In 1969, Hunt purchased a small trucking operation with five tractors and seven trailers, at first as a support for the rice hulls business. By 1983, the operation had grown into the 80th largest trucking firm in the U.S. The same year, Hunt sold his rice hull operation, and J. B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., went public, offering more than one million shares of stock. ==Retirement==

Hunt stepped down as president of his company in 1982 but remained a fixture, staying on as chairman of the board until 1995. On December 31, 2004, Hunt retired but remained the company's largest shareholder. In 2005, Springdale Public Schools opened a new elementary school named after Hunt. The Hunt family donated the land for the school, valued in excess of $500,000. This K-5 elementary school is located on Silent Grove Road in Springdale, Arkansas. Hunt was a frequent visitor to the school after it opened. In early 2006, Hunt bought the site of the abandoned Superconducting Super Collider in Waxahachie, Texas, for $6.5 million, hoping to turn it into a secure data storage facility. His death at a hospital in Springdale, Arkansas, on December 7, 2006, after sustaining a head injury in a fall on ice five days earlier, put an end to this project. ==Awards and honors==

• 1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement • 2001: Arkansas Business Hall of Fame • 2016: Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ (CSCMP) Hall of Fame ==References==