Here's an informative write-up about
Kelleher, and it sounds ike he was quite the go-getter and take-charge kind of fellow.
Perhaps the words in the article that best sum him are, in his own words:
“I love battles. I think it’s part of the Irish in me. It’s like what Patton said, ‘War is hell, and I love it so.’ That’s how I feel. I’ve never gotten tired of fighting."And how about
this for a descript
ion of a typical flight on his airline:
"You’d get on a Friday flight from, say, Houston to Austin. The flight attendants would be cracking jokes over the intercom. The booze would start flowing pretty much the moment the flight was airborne. For the next hour-plus the plane would be filled with laughter. (During one of the interminable fare wars with Braniff, Kelleher offered customers a bottle of whiskey if they were willing to pay a higher fare to fly Southwest.) Every once in a great while, Kelleher himself would be on board dressed like Elvis Presley. You had to be a serious curmudgeon not to have a good time."and then this:
"... or the time when after a competitor accused Southwest of operating a “cattle car,” he starred in an ad with a bag over his head. (He said Southwest would give a bag to anyone who was embarrassed to fly the airline.)"What a character! Having a conversation with him must have been a real hoot!
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/only-herb-kelleher-could-make-an-airline-revolution-this-fun/BTW, cause of his death is not cited anywhere (yet) as far as I can tell (he was 87), but there is this amusing note from the article linked below:
"Kelleher successfully battled prostate cancer in 2000. Calling his condition "a temporary setback," he continued to work and smoke while receiving daily radiation treatments—"I don't smoke with my prostate," he quipped in BusinessWeek (January 8, 2001)."https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/f-l/kelleher-herb-1931.html