Joe Nocera, Columnist

Only Herb Kelleher Could Make an Airline Revolution This Fun

The founder of Southwest Airlines should be remembered for his profits as much as his antics.

January 4, 2019 at 3:33 PM UTC

Joe Nocera is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He has written business columns for Esquire, GQ and the New York Times, and is the former editorial director of Fortune. He is the host and writer of the Bloomberg-Wondery podcast "The Shrink Next Door."

“If there are occasions or grief or joy, we will be there with them.”
Photographer: Mike Fuentes/Bloomberg

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Herb Kelleher made it look easy.

The former chairman and chief executive of Southwest Airlines Co., who died Thursday at 87, never stopped laughing, never stopped joking, never stopped drinking his Wild Turkey bourbon or smoking his Kool cigarettes — and never stopped making time for anyone and everyone who worked for him — while doing the near impossible: building, from scratch, a consistently profitable airline that today carries more passengers than United Airlines.