Huckleberries Online

Micron CEO Appleton Dies In Crash

Posted by DFO

Feb. 3, 2012 11:50 a.m. • 9 comments

Emergency personnel look over the wreckage of a Lancair aircraft that crashed at the Boise Airport Friday morning in Boise, killing Steve Appleton, the chief executive and chairman of Micron, the company said. He was 51. Officials at the airport say the experimental aircraft crashed between two runways. (AP/Statesman photo: Joe Jaszewski)

Fire crews are investigating a small plane crash at the Boise Airport that resulted in the death of Micron CEO Steve Appleton around 9 a.m. Friday. Appleton was the only person in the plane, according to Boise Airport reports and Micron reports. A news conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. Ada County dispatchers say reports came in of a small plane, with one person on board, on fire before it landed near an airport runway. The plane, a Lancair experimental aircraft, went down between two runways. The Lancair is a single-engine prop plane/Idaho Statesman. More here. (AP file photo: Steve Appleton checks on components of the engine that ran a stunt jet airplane in Boise in December 2005)

Idaho delegation reacts to Steve Appleton's death/Kevin Richert, Statesman
Idaho Statesman photo gallery in memory of Steve Appleton
2008 Idaho Press Tribune feature on Appleton: 'I don't have any regrets'/Brenda Ceja

Reaction?

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/02/03/1979665/fire-crews-sent-to-report-of-small.html#storylink=twt#storylink=cpy

Nine comments on this post so far. Add yours!

fortboise on February 03 at 11:15 a.m.
Condolences to his family and friends. He lived life in the fast lane, to be sure.
duroc on February 03 at 11:30 a.m.
Reaction? It’s a shame. Sad news for everyone involved, and a tragic loss.

I wouldn’t go so far to say he “wanted to go out this way” (who would), but he did die doing something he was very passionate about.
greenlibertarian on February 03 at 11:41 a.m.
Sorry for his friends and family.

Did the BoD of Micron know of his passion for flying, especially an experimental (and popular) kit aircraft?

If so, business continuity would suggest there is a well planned succession protocol.
Sisyphus on February 03 at 11:57 a.m.
Glib, of course they did. Apparently though, the second in command just recently resigned unbeknown to anyone. Whoopsie. Get those wills done folks.
Bubblehead on February 03 at 12:08 p.m.
Well, everyone at the company knew that Mark Durcan had announced his retirement. I haven’t heard anything, but I imagine he’ll stay on for a while. Micron is one of the only public Fortune 500 companies where the top 2 guys were both “home-grown” so I imagine (I haven’t heard anything) that we might go outside for a replacement; the newly announced President was a Lexar guy who joined the company when we acquired them.
fortboise on February 03 at 12:15 p.m.
I wish Micron well in what is going to be a difficult transition. A lot of us had front row seats for Hewlett Packard’s change from top management promoted from within to external recruiting. That turned out to be a freaky demolition derby.

(The “old” HP played a role in nurturing Micron, too. Don’t know how big it was, but I was personally involved, back in ‘83-‘84.)
idawa on February 03 at 12:28 p.m.
Sad news. He really did make this a home grown company and was one of the few career producers in the state. I hope without a strong Idaho voice on the board, that they don’t start thinking about moving even more production away - ala boeing after all the NW founders died off or retired away.
IdahoDad on February 03 at 3:25 p.m.
I met Appleton a few times when I worked at Micron. Most driven individual I’ve ever known. He started off at the very bottom and made his way to the top in a short time. It probably helped that he only slept a few hours each night. I always thought he’d die of some neurological disease brought on by lack of sleep.
Stickman on February 03 at 6:50 p.m.
Even for one such as me, I would never fly around in an experimental aircraft. Are we asking for something?

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.