Ferrellgas Boss Makes Propane Hall of Fame

After 46 years of service to the industry, Ferrellgas boss James Ferrell is being inducted into the Propane Hall of Fame. (image: ingramsonline.com)

The man who heads one of the country’s biggest propane retailers has been elected into the newly launched Propane Hall of Fame.

It may not have the sexiness of its rock and roll equivalent, but to industry players the Propane Hall of Fame is like making the cover of the Rolling Stone. It was developed this year by LP Gas, a Cleveland-based trade magazine, to help mark the year-long celebrations of the propane industry’s 2012 centenary.

James E. Ferrell, the chairman of Kansas-based Ferrellgas Partners, LP, has been elected into the hall of fame’s first-ever class, PRNewswire reports. He will be inducted with a class of eight others at a ceremony in Atlanta on April 13. A total of 44 nominees were considered.

“Jim Ferrell is simply one of the most recognized and most respected names in the 100-year history of the retail propane industry,” Ferrellgas President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Wambold said. “It’s a fitting tribute to someone who has accomplished so much during his 46 years in the industry.”

Ferrellgas is one of the country’s propane heavyweights, serving more than one million customers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Ferrell originally sought a military career, serving in the US Army from the time of his graduation from the University of Kansas in 1963 until 1965, when he left the Army to take over his father’s struggling propane business in Atchison, Kansas. The company is now the nation’s second-largest propane retailer and, under the trade name Blue Rhino, the nation’s largest provider of propane by portable tank exchange.

Ferrell is a two-time past president of the Paris-based World LP Gas Association, a former Counselor for the Propane Education & Research Council, and a former chairman of the Propane Vehicle Council.

Joining Ferrell in the inaugural Propane Hall of Fame class are Mark Anton (Suburban Propane), John Blossman (Blossman Gas), Sam McTier (McTier Supply Co.), Robert Myers (Petrolane Inc.), Walter Snelling (American Gasol Co.), Milford Therrell (Squibb-Taylor Inc.), H. Emerson Thomas (Continental Tank Car Co.), and John Wallace (Petrolane Inc.).

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