Patrick Quinn, Former ATA Chairman, U.S. Xpress Co-Founder, Dies at 65

Patrick Quinn, 65, a co-founder of the nation’s third-largest truckload carrier who rose from a small Nebraska farm to national positions of trucking industry leadership after opting out of a corporate legal career, died Dec. 13 at his home near Chattanooga, Tenn., succumbing to brain cancer.

U.S. Xpress Enterprises was started in 1985 by Quinn and his longtime business partner, Max Fuller, as a longhaul truckload carrier in the early years after industry deregulation. Quinn and Fuller diversified their services over the years to reflect changing market demand, and now the company generates more than $1.59 billion a year in annual revenue from dedicated contract carriage, regional truckload, intermodal services, warehousing and freight brokerage.

As an advocate for the industry, Quinn served as chairman of American Trucking Associations for an unusual 20-month term starting in October 2005. He served eight months longer than usual, until June 2007, because of the sudden death of incoming ATA Chairman C.J. “Mac” McCormick III. Quinn was also chairman of the Truckload Carriers Association in 2001-02.

On the federal stage, Quinn was appointed to the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission in 2006 by former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), then the Senate’s majority leader. He also served on the Trade and Transportation Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve’s Atlanta regional bank.

“Pat was a tremendous business partner, and he had a real passion for working to make a difference in our industry,” said Fuller, who assumed most of Quinn’s duties following his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

“One of the most lasting accomplishments of my career was the business partnership that Pat and I established. We could count on each other to divide up the leadership responsibilities. . . . He excelled in sales, and his legal background was very valuable, especially during the first days of the company as deregulation was helping to revolutionize the transportation industry,” Fuller said.

Fuller’s management role included the purchase and maintenance of rolling stock, and he once joked that if Quinn were to spec a truck it would come with the wheels on the cab’s roof.

“Pat and I have known each other for nearly 40 years. He has always been a dedicated and articulate representative of our industry and his company,” said ATA Chairman Dan England, who also is chairman of C.R. England Inc., Salt Lake City. “Our industry has lost a real icon.”

“American Trucking Associations and the trucking industry have lost one of our finest leaders. Pat Quinn was a remarkable man who devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy in support of the trucking industry he loved,” said ATA President Bill Graves. “U.S. Xpress, the Tennessee Trucking Association, the Truckload Carriers Association and ATA are all better organizations for having had the benefit of Pat’s involvement and leadership.”

Quinn was born in 1946 and adopted from a Lincoln, Neb., orphanage by a farm couple from Hastings. Years later he recalled that his school really was a one-room schoolhouse. The first in his family to attend college, Quinn got a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and then a law degree.

He became a partner in Nelson & Harding, a firm with a strong transportation practice, and did work for Fuller’s father, Clyde Fuller, and his trucking company, Southwest Motor Freight.

Quinn went in-house for Southwest as general counsel in 1977 and later switched to general management. Quinn and Fuller started U.S. Xpress after Clyde Fuller sold Southwest.

Quinn’s fellow former ATA chairmen recalled his boundless enthusiasm for the industry and the institution of ATA.

“Pat came to the most recent [Management Conference & Exhibition] in Texas. He said it was very important to him because that’s where his cherished friends were,” said Barbara Windsor, CEO of Hahn Transportation and ATA’s immediate past chairman.

Windsor said Quinn was determined to give his report as ATA treasurer to the board’s executive committee in October, and that he did so.

“I saw him in March at the TCA meeting, and he complained of headaches, but had not been diagnosed then,” Windsor said.

Steve Williams, chairman and CEO of Maverick USA, was chairman directly before Quinn and credited Quinn’s diplomatic skills for reuniting ATA with TCA after a brief schism between the two groups.

“When Pat was chairman of ATA, he had also been chairman of TCA and was in a unique position to help mend fences. He worked on that a lot,” said Williams.

Williams added that he and Quinn helped redefine the chairman’s job from one person and his or her ideas to greater continuity among ATA leadership so goals could be pursued over time.

“We needed unanimity among leadership so we could hand off the job from one chairman to the next and the next. We shared that vision,” Williams said.

Ray Kuntz of Watkins & Shepard Trucking recalled how he and Quinn had to decide what to do when McCormick died just days before the start of the 2006 MCE, at which McCormick was to succeed Quinn as chairman. Kuntz was to be McCormick’s vice chairman.

“Pat’s Xpress Global division is my biggest competitor in hauling carpet, but we were friends. He bent over backwards to help when I was chairman after him. He offered to stay on longer after Mac’s death, and we agreed to split that year,” said Kuntz.

Kuntz added that Quinn’s interests ranged from the technical to the personal.

“Pat had a great understanding of highway funding because of the work he did on that [transportation policy] commission. He probably knew the subject better than anyone,” Kuntz said of Quinn’s professional interests, adding that Quinn was “a very genuine and caring person . . . who asked me about my kids and how they were doing and was very proud of his own children.”

Quinn’s daughter, Lisa Pate, is U.S. Xpress’ general counsel and his son, Brian, is vice president and general manager of the corporation’s international business unit. Another daughter, Renee Daly, is also an attorney.

In addition to his wife of 43 years, Anna Marie, their three children and spouses, Quinn is survived by seven grandchildren. The funeral was scheduled for Dec. 17 in Chattanooga. In lieu of flowers, the family said contributions can be made in Quinn’s name to the American Cancer Society.