You may have no idea who Larry Miller is, unless of course you live in Utah, in which case that would be impossible. He died yesterday, after a debilitating battle with type II diabetes in which he lost part of his sight and both his legs below the knee. He was 64 years old.

Larry Miller's life bears celebration for reasons I outlined yesterday in this post. He was in my view, the essential American success story--you know, the one's which elicit the familiar remark, "only in America".

Miller's parents were divorced when he was a toddler, and he was adopted by his step-father. He didn't go to college and his first job was in an auto parts store. If there was anything exceptional about him, it would be his skill at fast pitch softball which he played semi-professionally as a young man. He wasn't from a prominent family, had no political connections, wasn't particular physically remarkable in any way, he talked Utah poor and seemed destined for a life as a middle management in an automobile dealership somewhere.

Instead, he became a billionaire, or pretty close to it.

He bought a car dealership, investing his entire life savings and borrowing the rest. That grew to be 42 car dealerships in the intermountain west, a professional basketball team (the Utah Jazz). Larry Miller won more than he lost and he took breathtaking risks, because this is a country where that is possible. Its hard to imagine where a guy like Larry Miller could exist other than this country.

...but for how much longer?