Ron Johnson's Real Accomplishment: Marrying the Shrink-Wrap Princess

So it turns out that Senate wannabe Ron Johnson isn't really a self-made man who built a business; but you can't say he wasn't entrepreneurial - he married one of the daughters of a man who did.

When Johnson married Jane Curler, his University of Minnesota sweetheart, he became the son-in-law of Howard Curler, a member of the Wisconsin Meat Industry Hall of Fame for innovations in plastic packaging. Curler and a partner, Robert Woods, started a company, Curwood, that soon "revolutionized cheese packaging" with their shrink-wrap and made Curler and his family very very rich.

In addition to cheese and meat, Curwood and its Group Companies produce packaging films for coffee, candy, sweet and salted snacks, liquid products, personal care and medical products and the list continues to grow. Manufacturing plants and sales offices are now located across the United States and Canada and in Europe and South America.

In 1977, Howard Curler set up his son Patrick in a business, named PACUR (for PAtrick CURler), with Curwood as his only customer for many years. Ron Johnson joined the company in 1979 and worked for Patrick. Jud Lounsbury details how Johnson succeeded:

The reality is that Ron Johnson lucked-out by marrying Howard Curler's daughter, but that doesn't make him an entrepreneur and a business-dynamo, that makes him lucky.

And in Wisconsin you need more than luck to replace Russ Feingold.

- Barry Orton

Comments

[antpoppa]

The secret to success in the fifties, according to the movie “ The Graduate” was.. PLASTICS!
The interesting story is that the company thrived, so many family run businesses are driven into the ground by the second generation. And lucky for us, the family kept the business in Wisconsin, because Ron would have split for China or Mexico a long time ago according to his theory of creative destruction.

[Ex Alderman Steve]

Actually, "The Graduate" takes place in the sixties...

[Charlie UnSykes]

Luck and skill aren't mutually exclusive.

[Vance]

didnt he advance that company to great heights once he took over? i mean its the Fox Valley. He's gotta have something going for him, Orton. give him a little credit. credit > snark

[Jim]

You are an idiot

[tt]

Jim, it's you're, so you're the idiot.