Menk, Louis Wilson, 1918-1999

Louis W. Menk was born April 8, 1918, the son of Louis A. Menk, a Union Pacific brakeman, and Daisy Deane (Frantz) Menk, a schoolteacher. He grew up in the Denver suburb of Englewood, Colorado, and attended the University of Denver for about two years while working nights as a Union Pacific messenger.

Menk left college in 1940 to take a job as a telegrapher in Tulsa, Oklahoma with the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco). For the next 25 years he rose steadily through the Operation Department ranks of the Frisco: train dispatcher (Tulsa), assistant trainmaster (Tulsa and Newburg, Mo.), trainmaster (Thayer, Mo.), assistant superintendent (Chaffee and Newburg, Mo.), terminal trainmaster (Memphis, Tenn.), and superintendent (Fort Smith, Ark., Memphis, and Tulsa). From 1953 to 1960 he was stationed at regional headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, where he rose to regional vice-president of the company. He was later transferred to corporate headquarters in St. Louis where he served as vice president-operation (1960-1962), president (1962-1965), and chairman (1964-1965).

During his Frisco presidency he was generally credited with modernizing the company�s management and with increasing its operating efficiency and earnings. His success led to his 1965 recruitment by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (Burlington)�a company more than double the Frisco�s size�to succeed outgoing president Harry Murphy. During his year in Chicago as Burlington president, the company�s earnings increased over 100 percent, resulting in his October 1966 election to the presidency of the Northern Pacific Railway (NP), one of the Burlington�s parent companies. His railroading success attracted national attention and he was named 1966 �Railroad Man of the Year� by Modern Railroads magazine.

In 1967 he was made chief executive officer of the NP, and for the next three years he worked to secure the long-sought merger of the NP, the Great Northern Railway, the Burlington, and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway. On March 1, 1970 the merged entity, renamed Burlington Northern Inc. (BN), was formally established and Menk was elected its first president. In 1971 he was elected chief executive officer and chairman of the board, and in 1978 he resigned his chief executive post to pursue the chairmanship full time.

BN reorganized itself in 1981 as a holding company controlling the assets of eight separate operating companies, and during that year Menk retired from the corporation�s chairmanship. In 1982 he was elected chairman and chief executive officer of the International Harvester Company. At the end of that he relinquished the CEO responsibilities while retaining the chairmanship. Menk retired as chairman in August, 1983.

Menk was active throughout his career in rail industry organizations, and served as a director of the Association of American Railroads and the Transportation Association of America. He also served as a director of about a dozen other business corporations in a variety of industries. He has been active in chamber of commerce activities in various locales, in United Way and Community Chest drives, and in other community business and social service activities. He was long active in the Boy Scouts of America, serving in various executive capacities with national and regional scouting organizations. Menk also served on the boards of trustees of several colleges and universities, and was especially active on that of his alma mater, the University of Denver.

Menk was married in 1942 to Martha Jane Swan of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has two children: David Louis Menk and Barbara Ann (Menk) Ambrose.

From the guide to the Louis Menk papers., 1953-1981., (Minnesota Historical Society)