Obituary: Hays T Watkins (1926-2022)

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James R Hagerty, Accountant Shook up a Major Railroad. Wall Street Journal, Aug 6, 2022, at page A 11.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/csx ... hipping-11659715379

Note:
(a)
(i) The English And Welsh surname Watkin is "from The personal name Watkin, a diminutive Of Walter." Dictionary of American Family Names, by Oxford University Press.
(ii) -kin
https://www.etymonline.com/word/-kin
(iii) The s in Watkins signifies "son of."

(b)
(i) There is no Wikipaedia page for Mr Watkins.
(ii) Mr Hays T Watkins. WKU Allumni Association undated (under the heading "Hall of Distinguished Alumni")
http://alumni.wku.edu/s/808/index.aspx?pgid=1754&gid=1
("(INDUCTED IN 1997) * * * A native of the Louisville suburb of Fern Creek, Watkins earned his bachelor's degree from Bowling Green Business University (now WKU) in 1947 and a master's degree from Northwestern University in 1948. In 1949, he joined Chesapeake and Ohio Railway as a staff analyst and by 1961 had become C&O's treasurer.
(A) Louisville, Kentucky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky
(the largest city [2020 population: 633,045 (table)] in the Commonwealth of Kentucky * * * Named after King Louis XVI of France, Louisville was founded in 1778 by [American] George Rogers Clark * * * Since 2003, Louisville's borders have been the same as those of Jefferson County, after a city-county merger [where Louisville annexed all other cities within the county]. The official name of this consolidated city-county government is the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, abbreviated to Louisville Metro")  
(B) Western Kentucky University
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Kentucky_University
(1906- ; public; at Bowling Green, Kentucky)
(C) Bowling Green, Kentucky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Green,_Kentucky
("As of the 2020 census, its population of 72,294 made it the third-most-populous city in the state [2020 population: 4,509,342], after Louisville and Lexington * * * [in 1798 named] after the [a small public park] Bowling Green in New York City, where patriots had pulled down a statue of King George III and used the lead to make bullets during the American Revolution.

(c) true to form
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/true_to_form  
("(also true to type)")
(d) CSX Transportation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSX_Transportation
(section 1 History, section 1.1 Early years)

-----------------------------full text
When Hays T Watkins was 4, his parents noticed that he had memorized at least two dozen license-plate numbers and could match them with names of the cars' owners. A newspaper in Jefferson County, Ky, described him as a 'perfectly normal boy' with 'an abnormal love for reading numbers.'

True to form, the numbers prodigy grew up to be an accountant. Less predictable was his ascent from a junior staff job at the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway to the chief executive’s post at the rail giant CSX Corp.

Mr Watkins negotiated the 1980 merger of Chessie System Inc, owner of the C&O, with Seaboard Coast Line Industries, Inc, creating CSX. Mr Watkins ran CSX -- variously as president, CEO and chairman -- until he retired in 1991.

Eager to create a one-stop shipping, Mr Watkins launched a trucking business and acquired Sea-Land Corp, an operator of container ships. CSX also bought barge and gas pipeline operations. The company later sold most of those assets to focus on rail services. Customers relied on logistics companies to find the most efficient ways to move freight.

Mr Watkins died July 29 at the age of 96.

He never had a career plan. 'Everyone would be better off, I believe, if they simply concentrated on doing their very best and then basically let nature take its course,' he wrote.