Eva Schoen: Tragedy in Telluride
The Birth of U-Haul
L.S. Shoen was born in 1916 in McGrath, Minn. A visionary since he was a teen-ager, Shoen worked odd jobs to finance his dream of being a doctor. He went first to medical school and then law school, but when World War II erupted, he enlisted in the Navy. In the Navy, Shoen contracted rheumatic fever before he could see any action. While confined to a navy hospital bed, Shoen dreamed up a new business venture trailer rentals.
After his discharge, Shoen and his wife settled on a ranch in Washington and invested $5,000 of savings in materials to build a fleet of trailers. They traveled up and down the coast, delivering the vehicles to a burgeoning network of dealers. Soon thousands were on the road, and the Shoens had a thriving business.
Shoen and his first wife had six children, but she died of a heart attack in 1957. Shoen remarried a year later and fathered another five children. The second marriage ended in divorce, but Shoen married yet again and fathered a twelfth child.
To call Shoen a hard worker would have been an understatement. He was rarely at home to raise his children but instead lavished them with gifts. Several joined him in the business Sam, the oldest, who also went to medical school but didn't end up practicing; Michael; Mark; and Joe.
U-Haul went public under an umbrella company, Amerco. Business seemed to be good on the outside, but underneath the strong financials a dysfunctional managerial environment developed that often degenerated into shouting matches between the sons. The men underwent counseling sessions, which concluded with a report "that was blisteringly critical of Joe and Mark and their 'insatiable' desire for 'absolute power,'" according to a 1991 story by the Los Angeles Times. "It is impractical to expect the struggle to lessen as long as there is a close working relationship between Joe and Mark and the rest of the group," the psychologist conducting the counseling wrote.