Appleton’s legacy has shaped the Treasure Valley

When Micron CEO Steve Appleton perished in a plane crash Feb. 3, he left behind a legacy of unrivaled community and business support in Boise.

Since 1994, when Appleton was appointed CEO, Micron has thrived as the Treasure Valley’s premier success story. And with its success came the local benefits. Whether it was for economic development, schools or general philanthropy, Appleton and Micron have been an irreplaceable boon.

Bill Connors, Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, paused during a recent interview as he ticked off charitable causes in the name of Appleton and, under his direction, Micron.

“Your paper isn’t big enough to list everything they do,” Connors said.

Local leaders paint a bleak picture of the Boise metro area without Micron in it, promising that some of the community support given by the semiconductor giant could be replaced. But certainly not all.

“There is no question that Steve’s contributions personally and the contributions of Micron had a significant impact in the business landscape in the community,” said Rob Perez, president of Western Capital Bank in Boise.

Appleton, a stunt pilot, was flying a home-built experimental aircraft known for its light weight and fast speeds when he crashed just after take-off at the Boise airport. He was 51 years old.

He began his career at Micron in 1983 on the production room floor after graduating from Boise State University and moved up the ranks to chief operating officer in 1991, then president and CEO in 1994.

Appleton’s contributions start with keeping Micron itself a top player in the memory business. The semiconductor industry, known for its violent market swings, has killed many of its players — including at-one-time successful ones.

Micron has emerged from every storm — and in recent cycles has even managed to acquire its competition in rough times.

At one time during Appleton’s tenure, Micron was the state’s largest employer, supplying high-wage jobs to more than 10,000 employees. It remains, with more than 5,000 employees here and about 23,000 worldwide, one of the largest companies in Idaho.

Former Idaho chief economist Michael Ferguson said the high wages, educated workforce and permanence of the Micron facility in Boise have had ripple effects across all of Idaho’s economy.

Its employees spend money on large assets, like homes, and have disposable income to support a variety of local businesses that focus on need and leisure.

The company itself helps business for support functions, such as hiring people for maintenance, tool calibration and shipping, he said.

At one time, Micron could be counted on for about half the state’s corporate income tax revenues, Ferguson said.

As a high-tech company at the forefront of the memory business, Micron needed state of the art infrastructure to operate its business.

Micron’s influence, said Clark Krause, Boise Valley Economic Partnership executive director,  can be attributed to better broadband access in Boise than many cities with higher populations. Commercial flights, while lagging compared to more established hubs, would be even more threadbare without the international business community that Micron either visits or attracts, Krause said.

In terms of economic development, that infrastructure has become a selling point for luring companies to the Treasure Valley, he said. When companies ask about how good Boise’s Internet access, power and other infrastructure is, Krause has a standard answer:

“We tell them, ‘we’re the home of Micron,’ and that question goes away.”

Most observers believe that Micron’s influence won’t wain, even as the company loses a CEO that has been fiercely dedicated to Boise. Ferguson said that Micron’s history in Boise, where it was founded, will mean a lot to Micron executives.

“I would imagine there is still pretty deep roots in the community,” Ferguson said.

The CEO, Mark Durcan, who had announced his August retirement from Micron Jan. 26, also has a history of generous giving in the community.

When Micron and Appleton have gone above and beyond the call of operating a company, the philanthropic efforts have been unmatched, said Marilyn Whitney, the Idaho Board of Education spokeswoman who worked closely with the Micron Foundation while she did educational work for the Idaho National Laboratory.

“The significance of their impact can’t be overstated. If you were to take Micron out of the equation, that would leave a huge void. There are other resources, but not with the size and not with the influence that Micron has,” Whitney said. “It would take a lot of smaller organizations and companies to replace that (and) I don’t think that you could replace that.”

Some of the help is easier to spot than other parts. Appleton built the Appleton Tennis Center at BSU for $2 million, helping the Bronco tennis program that once gave him a scholarship.

Boise State President Bob Kustra gave Appleton credit for playing “a critical role in transforming Boise State into a research university serving the tech economy of Idaho.”

The College of Western Idaho received $2.5 million for a new technical building that was named after the company.

Whitney said Micron’s programs for grade school education will have positive impacts in the state for years to come. She said efforts by the company to get more students interested in science and math programs will create a more technical, skilled workforce that can serve Micron and act as a workforce beacon to any other high-wage company that is looking to locate.

“I think that you wouldn’t see as many students interested in pursuing careers in technical fields. You would see less of a focus in those areas and fewer students choosing to pursue higher education in those subjects,” Whitney said.

Boise School District Superintendant Don Coberly said that Micron’s $1 million donation to the Treasure Valley Mathematics and Science Center allowed them to obtain the equipment necessary to bring the center online.

“But it wasn’t a one-shot deal for them,” he said.

Micron also has brought workshops for students and teachers to the school district, part of a plan to increase math and science interest among students, he said. Whitney said the company is “always at the table” when education needs support.

“I think that’s part of Mr. Appleton’s legacy, that Micron has been and continues to be, because of his approach, a great partner for schools,” Coberly said.

Other players have made huge contributions to Boise at various times through the years and Micron was often joined by the likes of the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation, Morrison Knudsen Corp. (later the Washington Group and now a division of URS), Idaho National Laboratory and J.R. Simplot Co., among others.

Appleton also played a role in transforming the perception of Boise in the business world, Connors said.

Before Micron, the Treasure Valley was often thought of as agrarian, and outside business interests scoffed at the idea of a tech company thriving in Idaho, he said.

“As the rest of the world looks at Boise, one of the things they see is a community driven by creativity, by high technology and that image has been driven by people like Steve Appleton,” Connors said. “He helped to change the culture of this community and the image of it worldwide.”

Connors said that Appleton still left some very large philanthropic shoes to fill, but it’s possible that a coalition of successful corporate citizens could make the same kind of difference.

“Hopefully, with his passing, a lot of business leaders will say, ‘hey, this is how I want to be remembered as well,'” Connors said.

Perez said he would like to see Appleton’s example followed by business leaders across the valley.

“I would hope that we could expand the corporate well being in this community so that we reduce … our reliance on a few giving a lot and expand that to many more giving,” he said.