John E. Osguthorpe, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, June 24, 2004: Saving the Legacy tape no. 667

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JOH E. 0 GUTHORPE J 24,2004 I m not competing against US farmers." Then I'd take the listing and buy the urplu for all the world. I was the only person who knew what was produced, sold surplus or stored. No one knew of anything I was doing, because the boss said, "I don t know and I don't want to know, John. So you're strictly on your own." So my life was interesting but it was the most lonely life in the world. You never had anybody to your home. You never let anybody even know where you were living or anything. Now these companies then told me I was the outstanding fertilizer purchaser in the United States. Bill Turbenville, president and head of Continental Oil, got up and said, "There's one man in this room who knows more about our businesses, your businesses, and my business than any man does outside our own company. Because," he said, "we tell you that this man has access to anything in our personal files, because he has to in order to do his job." But he said, "None of the other people know." He said, "We give him access to anything we have in our office on production, storage and sales. I know all you companies do the same." These are the biggest companies in the United States. "We all give him access to our offices. But he has never told anyone or ever divulged a thing to a competitor company that he learned from us. That's the reason we declare him as the outstanding fertilizer man in the United States." So anyway ... BEC: What was your motivation for all that sacrifice? JOHN: I sacrificed my whole life. I spent my whole life helping other people. BEC: So what was your motivation? JOHN: To help the world. Everybody was my brother. I'm still dedicated to that. I've given $370,000 to Utah State for the John E. Osguthorpe Scholarships. I've done seventy scholarships at Utah State so far in the last seven years. 7