Simkins Industries history

His decade of purchases left the company in trouble in 1929, as Shortess and Federal fell behind on loan payments.

In 1935, Shortess acquired an 80 percent interest in S-C-S Box Company in Palmer, Massachusetts, when that company was unable to pay $100,000 that it owed for paperboard purchases.

Demand for paperboard soared--only to drop off again from its record high sales in 1947 when the economy settled down again.

In 1953, it bought National Folding Box Company, surprising other members of the industry who knew National to be a top company while Federal was new to the business.

One of the ventures that had given Kennedy the time and money to survive Sprague's early years, even when it was losing money because of early production problems, was the acquisition of Federal Glass Company in Columbus, Ohio, in 1958.

When the company became profitable again in 1976, Kennedy tried to sell it to another glassmaking company.

In 1989, Federal purchased Thomas Tait & Sons Ltd., a mill in Scotland that produced uncoated freesheet, the white paper for copiers and printers.

In fact, in 1991, the Sprague mill was still the "newest" paperboard mill in the country, and as such, was at the center of the recycling business and the only mill in the United States to use a recycled paperboard making method called the Inverform process.

Within a few years, Federal launched a five-year expansion and modernization project which was completed in 1992.

Colt Brennan, the former Hawaii star quarterback, dies at 37 after struggles with alcohol addictionColt Brennan, a star quarterback at the University of Hawaii who finished third in the 2007 Heisman Trophy balloting, died early Tuesday, his father said.