Richard J. Corman

Richard Jay Corman (July 22, 1955 – August 23, 2013)^[1] was the founder and owner of R.J. Corman Railroad Group, a Nicholasville, Kentucky-based railroad holding company. He founded the railroad company and ran it until his death.^[2]

Early life

Corman was born and died in Nicholasville, Kentucky. The son of a state highway worker, he grew up in a home not far from his company's future headquarters in Nicholasville.^[1] He first went into business at age 11, when his paternal grandfather made him a 25% partner in a business hauling cattle, goods, and junk.^[1] According to a 2011 profile in Fortune, "high school utterly bored him"; he missed 105 of 173 possible school days during his senior year but still graduated in 1973.^[2] His senior year was also eventful for his first marriage, which ended when his wife turned out not to be pregnant.^[2]

Business career

Corman entered into the business world full-time straight out of high school. He had spent the time he missed in school learning the excavation business from an uncle, and rented a backhoe and dump truck to start his first full-time business. The truck was red, which became his company's signature color.^[2] He entered the railroad business peripherally at first, repairing crossings for the old L&N Railroad and soon developing a reputation for fast and thorough work.^[1] Within a few years, another opportunity came when friends in the rail industry asked his company to step in and take over derailment work after a Columbus, Ohio company that had done this work left the city. .^[1] In 2011, BNSF Railway CEO Matt Rose said about Corman, "He's kind of like an oilfield firefighter. He's the Red Adair of the railroad industry."^[2]

While Corman was building his businesses, the rail industry was undergoing a period of major change that began with the 1980 passage of the Staggers Rail Act that extensively deregulated the industry. According to Corman's obituary in the Lexington Herald-Leader,

Larger railroads began to get rid of small stretches of unprofitable rail line. They also began to farm out maintenance, construction, derailment cleanups and other costly jobs to specialized, and often non-union, organizations like Mr. Corman's.^[1]

The first line that Corman purchased was a 20-mile short line in the Bardstown, Kentucky area, bought from the L&N Railroad in 1987. A year later, he began operating My Old Kentucky Dinner Train, using a car that had been part of the funeral procession for Dwight Eisenhower in 1969. Corman's company acquired more short lines over time, and was operating over 600 miles of track when Corman died. His company continued to do disaster work for railroads, notably playing a major role in the restoration of rail service to the region impacted by Hurricane Katrina.^[1]

Although Corman technically retired in 1997 following his third divorce, he remained intimately involved in his company's day-to-day affairs for the rest of his life. Corman also spent his final years planning for the company's future after his death. While he had received many purchase offers, he refused them all out of loyalty to his employees.^[2]

Personal life

Corman was married three times in all, and had five children. His two oldest, a daughter and a son, bear his name, but were born to a woman he never married. The three youngest, a son and two daughters, are from his third marriage. He spent the last 11 years of his life in a relationship with Tammie Taylor, an executive in his company.^[2]

He was also a significant University of Kentucky sports booster. In his final years, Corman became a close friend of UK men's basketball head coach John Calipari, who came to call him "a brother". Corman first met Calipari in 2009, when he sent one of his private jets to take Calipari and his wife from Memphis to Calipari's introductory press conference in Lexington.^[3] Shortly after Corman's death, Calipari recalled that they spent almost the entire flight "talking about anything other than basketball" once Corman made it clear he knew virtually nothing about the sport.^[4] Corman occasionally attended UK practices; Calipari noted that Corman was the only person he ever allowed into a UK practice wearing a red shirt, the color of UK's archrival, the University of Louisville.^[4] Corman's support was not limited to the men's basketball team; he also used a personal jet to deliver Mark Stoops to Lexington for his 2012 introduction as UK's new football head coach.^[1]

As a tribute to Corman, Calipari announced that he would wear red for at least one home game in the 2013–14 season.^[4]

Illness and death

Corman was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2001, after feeling excruciating back pain while running in Amsterdam. He entrusted much of his care to Kathleen Martin, a Lexington gastroenterologist whom he had previously dated, and the two then set on a journey that eventually led to the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. When they arrived at Dana–Farber, the institute's lead myeloma researcher told him, "If you come here, we will do everything possible to see that you grow old gracefully and die of something other than multiple myeloma." For the rest of his life, Corman contributed heavily to Dana–Farber, and also set up a trust to run his company following his death that reportedly had the institute as a beneficiary.^[2]

He had two bone marrow transplants as part of his treatment, the first in 2001 and the second in 2008. The cancer returned again in 2011; after a final turn for the worse in 2013, Corman died on August 23 at his home in Nicholasville.^[1]

References