Industry Hall Of Fame Introduction

Paul Allen Programming Pioneer

Tim Berners-Lee Developer Of The World Wide Web

Dan Bricklin Creator Of The Electronic Spreadsheet

Vint Cerf The Father Of The Internet

Ross Cooley Compaq's Channel Champion

Larry Ellison Database Dynamo

Bronson Ingram King Of Global Distribution Empire

Charles Wang Software Mangement Mogul

John Warnock Wizard Of Type

Steve Wozniak Apple's Engineering Genius

Development Teams Introduction

The Compaq Portable

The Intel 386SX

Lotus 1-2-3

Microsoft Windows

Today, Ingram Micro Inc., the Santa Ana, Calif.-based offshoot of Ingram Industries, which also has interests in river barges, coal and the distribution of videos, is the world's largest distributor of computer products. Ingram Micro is a worldwide distribution conglomerate of software applications, peripherals, PCs and Unix systems and is expected to log about $22 billion in revenue this year, up from $16.6 billion in 1997.

The company had grown its revenue to $9 billion by the time Bronson Ingram died at the age of 63 in June 1995. He had battled cancer for six months. He wanted to retire at 65, though those who knew him say he would have remained involved with the Ingram companies, attending board meetings and going over the books.

"He would still have gone into the office with the same discipline he had 20 years ago," said Phil Pfeffer, former executive vice president of Ingram Industries. "I would never have envisioned him to walk away from the office and not come back." Undoubtedly, according to Pfeffer and Ingram's family, he would have devoted more time to his other passions: golf, fishing and Vanderbilt University.

His interest in the business would have kept him going to the office, but he was also a man of habit, said his son John Ingram, co-president of Ingram Industries. Move his newspaper from its usual spot, and he might get angry if you neglected to put it back.

But despite what Bronson Ingram's widow Martha called a "flash temper," he was also self-effacing. He had the vision to get into the microcomputer industry early. He knew it had a future, though how big escaped his and everyone else's imagination, said close associates and family members.

"He was absolutely amazed at how big the business had become, and he was absolutely amazed at how successful we had become in the business," said Pfeffer.

After buying the distribution business in Buffalo, which Martha Ingram, Bronson's successor at Ingram Industries, said was the size of a two-car garage, Ingram Industries made another acquisition in software distribution.

The purchase of a majority stake in Micro D Inc. put the Ingram computer distribution business on the map. Lorraine Mecca, who had a large stake in Micro D, called Ingram Industries in 1985 offering to sell her shares.

"She was willing to discount her stock, and it was selling for about $3 a share," Bronson Ingram said later. "We talked about it awhile. We didn't know exactly what in the world we would do with half of a public company, but the price at which it was selling . . . was close to half of book value."

Mecca's deal gave Ingram Industries more than 50 percent ownership of the company. It also foiled Micro D's negotiations for a merger with another distributor, Softsel Computer Products Inc., which later merged with Microamerica Inc. to form Merisel Inc., El Segundo, Calif.

"We were very close to a merger. Actually, it was not a very good deal for Micro D," recalled Chip Lacy, the former chairman and chief executive of Micro D, who served in the same role at Ingram Micro until May 1996. The negotiations with Softsel had gone awry and Lacy said as a result, "I was not disappointed to have the deal undone."

Micro D and Ingram Industries' own computer distribution business, by then named Ingram Computer Inc., carried on as separate companies, often competing with each other. John Ingram recalled a conversation his father had with Pfeffer about competition between the two companies. One side blamed the other for "screwing up the marketplace," John recalled his father saying. "He said, 'Phil, it's both us. I'm either going to get in this game, or I'm out.' "

Bronson Ingram decided to stay in the game. In 1989, Ingram Industries bought the rest of Micro D and turned it into a private company, forming what today is Ingram Micro. The company went public two years ago.

"We were part of Ingram Distribution Group, which also included Ingram Book Co. and Ingram Entertainment," said Lacy. "Bronson was a delegative manager who was also very aware of the specifics of the business. He read voraciously anything he received, like the monthly operations book and analyses of market changes."

Bronson Ingram kept abreast of Ingram Micro's progress because "it was a major investment," said Pfeffer, president of publisher Random House Inc., New York, until recently. "It became a bigger and bigger piece of Ingram Industries."

Bronson Ingram saw his role as an adviser to the executives running the different divisions of his company. He kept up with Ingram Micro by visiting vendors, inviting customers and suppliers to the Augusta Golf Course and participating in the distributor's golf tournament the Sunday before Comdex/Fall.

In a family zealous about its privacy, Bronson Ingram remained a virtual unknown outside of Nashville, where he had a reputation as a philanthropist.

Ingram Micro went public in December 1996, the month he would have turned 65.

"This was a real conflict for him," said Martha Ingram. "I remember him saying: 'I don't think I would do well dealing with the public markets, but when I step down at 65 you guys can do whatever you want.' "

Bronson Ingram realized in 1993 a company the size of Ingram Micro eventually would have to go public, said Lacy. Preliminary plans for a public offering got under way before his death.

He would have stayed out of the public eye, but his pride in the company and its people would have soared with the IPO, said Martha Ingram. "I would like for him to be remembered as a very modest man, but one who demanded excellence of himself as well as those with whom he was associated," she said.