Rollin W King

Born in Cleveland on April 10, 1931, Mr. King graduated from Case Western Reserve University and Harvard Business School. After earning his business degree, he moved to San Antonio, took a job as an investment banker and operated a charter airline. Mr. King sketched out a plan to create Southwest in 1967. The idea was to create an airline that was less expensive and more fun to fly. ack when Mr. King and his collaborator, Herbert D. Kelleher, started the company with just a few planes, Southwest faced stiff opposition from larger, established carriers, whose prices made frequent air travel the near-exclusive domain of the wealthy. The concept for Southwest came to Mr. King when he noticed that businessmen in Texas were willing to charter planes instead of paying the high fares of the domestic airlines. The company started flying in 1971, but only in Texas at first. Southwest is now one of the world’s largest airlines with more than 100 million passengers annually and $17.7 billion in revenue last year. Among his survivors are sons, Edward and Rollin Jr., and a sister, Betty.