James Harwood Cochrane (November 16, 1912 – July 25, 2016) was an American businessman and philanthropist, as well as inductee into the Automotive Hall of Fame.
He met his future wife of eight decades, Louise Odell Blanks, on a blind date (each with another person) and they wed in the parlor of the pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in 1934.
In 1935, despite the Great Depression and having married Louise only about a year earlier, Cochrane quit the part-time dairy delivery job and formed Overnite Transportation.
Cochrane later told tales of eating frugally on the road, sometimes pawning his watch or other items to buy gasoline to return home, and even for nine months in 1934 driving a truck lacking both brakes and fourth gear.
Cochrane later treasured a copy of the $359,000 check written in 1963 by then Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa to Overnite to settle a legal judgment against the Union.
[5] By 1986, the company which began with a tractor, a trailer, a straight truck and two part-time drivers had become large enough that the Union Pacific Corporation offered to buy it.