Milton "Milt" G. Kuolt II was an American entrepreneur, who most notably founded Horizon Air, a Seattle-based

regional airline A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In North ...

. He also founded

Thousand Trails Thousand Trails is a membership campground company operating private trailer park and campground resorts (referred to as "preserves" in company parlance) in the United States and Canada. As of 2010, the company claimed to have 130,000 "member f ...

, a chain of private membership campgrounds. He died on May 30, 2008, due to complications from

emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...

Early life and education

Kuolt, born in 1927 in India to

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

missionaries, relocated to the United States in 1940. He lived in Missouri and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was voted (in absentia) "Least likely to succeed" by his high school class. Due to failing grades, Kuolt enlisted in the U.S. Navy before graduating from high school. After serving in the Navy for 18 months, he returned home, enrolling at Central Washington University, then called Central Washington College of Education. He graduated from Central Washington College of Education with a degree in Economics in 1951.

Career

The Boeing Company

Immediately after college graduation, Kuolt began janitorial work at The Boeing Company. However, shortly after beginning his career as a janitor, Kuolt was promoted to a corporate facilities planning and layout position, eventually becoming a business planning manager for the 737 aircraft program. While at Boeing, he bought and sold real estate to supplement his income.

Thousand Trails

In 1969, after purchasing a real estate investment, Kuolt founded

, the first private, members-only RV campground chain. The company's success led Kuolt to resign from Boeing and focus solely on Thousand Trails and other business ventures. Later, in 1981, Kuolt sold his ownership in Thousand Trails for $40 million. Today, the company owns over 80 private campgrounds nationwide and in British Columbia, Canada.

Horizon Air

In 1981, the same year that he sold Thousand Trails, Kuolt created Horizon Air. The airline, one of the first

s in the United States, began service on September 1, 1981, from Yakima to Seattle using two Fairchild F27 aircraft. The airline began operation with 36 employees, and went public three years later. In 1987, Horizon Air, which had grown to become the fifth-largest regional airline with service to over 30 cities, was purchased by Alaska Air Group for over $68 million.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuolt, Milton 1927 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople Boeing people Central Washington University alumni