Jim Bob Moffett, an oilfield worker’s brash son who built Freeport-McMoRan Inc. into a Fortune 500 company in New Orleans during the 1980s and 1990s and who acted as a powerhouse in local civic and business affairs, died of COVID-19 complications Friday in Austin, Texas, his son said. He was 82 and had been ill for several years.
“He was larger than life,” said Darryl Berger, a major real estate investor and civic leader in New Orleans.
Jim Bob Moffett in 1990. (Photo by Ellis Lucia, The Times-Picayune)
A geologist with a master’s degree from Tulane University, able to subsist on little sleep, Moffett used his forceful personality, willingness to take big risks and deep understanding of the oil, gas and minerals business to lead a company that in 1988 found the world’s biggest gold mine and one of the biggest copper mines in Indonesia. He was a major philanthropist in New Orleans and Austin, and also a regular target of environmental advocates in Louisiana, Texas and Indonesia.
In New Orleans, Moffett, who grew up poor in Texas, shook up the stodgy ways of doing business in a city where company CEOs tended to come from the old-line Carnival krewes and social clubs. He founded the Business Council in the mid-1980s to present, in a more forceful manner, business views on the major social and economic issues of the day to political leaders.
“Jim Bob was absolutely the most respected and well known individual in the last five decades in making a difference in business,” said Bill Goldring, a New Orleans liquor magnate and philanthropist whose father, Stephen, assisted Moffett in creating the Business Council. “He was forceful with a can-do attitude and never said something couldn’t be done. He pushed the limits on everything he touched. He was in your face when he knew something was right and had to be done. He would keep pushing to make it happen.”
Moffett explained his philosophy about business – and indeed life – in a 1995 interview: “When I walk into a conference room with lawyers and accountants, they’ll say to me, ‘You know, no one has done this before,’” he said. “That’s not a show stopper for me. It shouldn’t be a show stopper.
"As long as you’re convinced that you’re right about things, you ought to feel comfortable enough even when you’re talking about some pretty big numbers and some pretty big things. ... If you believe in what you’re doing and if you know that you can do things that other people can’t do and if you’re confident enough to take out on a new road, that’s what really creates assets that are different.”
James Robert Moffett was born in Houma in 1938 and lived in Golden Meadow until he was 5, when his father disappeared and his mother moved him and his sister to Houston. Moffett won a scholarship to play football and study geology at the University of Texas but found his studies limited his ability to play ball. Still, he became a favorite of the Longhorns’ legendary coach, Darrell Royal, for whom he played tackle.
The Freeport-McMoRan building at 1615 Poydras St. in New Orleans is shown in 2004. (Photo by Matt Rose, The Times-Picayune)
Afterward, Moffett returned to Louisiana and learned the ropes by working for an independent oil and gas company. In 1969, he formed McMoRan with Ken McWilliams and B.M. Rankin. Moffett was the architect of a 1981 merger with Freeport Minerals, a bigger company based in New York City, and insisted the combined company locate in the New Orleans area, which was closer to the oil fields.
In 1984, at a time when big oil and gas companies still had a major presence in New Orleans, Moffett moved the company headquarters from Metairie into a new office tower at 1615 Poydras St. across from the Superdome. The building wore the name Freeport-McMoRan for more than three decades.
Freeport-McMoRan remained in New Orleans until 2007 when a merger led to the company’s relocation in Phoenix. Moffett stepped down as chairman in 2015. By then, some of his investment bets had not paid off.
Moffett was particularly active in New Orleans when Sidney Barthelemy was mayor from 1986 to 1994. Barthelemy found Moffett to be a more willing partner than most other businessmen, at a time when a sharp drop in oil prices had ravaged New Orleans’ economy and City Hall's finances. He agreed to support a bond refinancing that provided $35 million for the city to pay for roadwork, parks and libraries.
“He was really a good, good person and willing to help,” Barthelemy said. “He was a tremendous asset to the city.”
Moffett had Freeport donate millions of dollars for libraries, parks, summer jobs programs for kids, the New Orleans Opera and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, among others, said Cindy Molyneux, who headed the company’s foundation.
“He was a giant of a man for the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana,” said Ron Forman, president and CEO of the Audubon Nature Institute. The institute operates the Audubon Freeport-McMoRan Species Survival Center in Lower Coast Algiers, where endangered species can breed. Freeport seeded the project with $10 million.
Not all of Moffett’s efforts in Louisiana succeeded. One major effort was his push to revamp the state’s tax laws, which he and its backers, including then-Gov. Buddy Roemer, dubbed “fiscal reform.” Louisiana voters rejected the measure after opponents said it would raise taxes on individuals.
On the day after Roemer lost the 1991 gubernatorial primary – and former Gov. Edwin Edwards and white supremacist David Duke advanced to the runoff – Moffett called Edwards to pledge support and rally business people behind him.
Moffett repeatedly fielded complaints from environment advocates that he turned a blind eye to company projects that poisoned the water and soils.
A pile of gypsum waste is seen at the Mosaic Uncle Sam fertilizer plant in St. James Parish on Feb. 6, 2019. (Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
For example, Freeport Chemicals wanted to dump two giant stacks of radioactive gypsum wastes in St. James Parish into the Mississippi River in the late 1980s, but government officials stopped the company. Those stacks, now owned by Mosaic Fertilizers, remain and have contaminated groundwater, said Wilma Subra, technical adviser to the Louisiana Environmental Action Network.
“That’s a legacy that will be there forever and ever,” Subra said.
Freeport has also been subject to strong criticism that its giant mine in Indonesia fouled the soil and that the company, in conjunction with the Indonesian government, its business partner, tortured and killed indigenous opponents of the massive project. The company denied those allegations.
Moffett is survived by his wife, Lauree Moffett of Austin; children James "Bubba" Moffett Jr. of Phoenix and New Orleans, Crystal Moffett Lourd of Los Angeles, Jordan Moffett of Austin and Corrine Moffett of Austin; and six grandchildren.
“He was my hero,” said Bubba Moffett, president of Crescent Crown Distributing, a beer and beverage distributor in south Louisiana and Phoenix.
As a young man, Moffett became a huge fan of Elvis Presley. During occasional shows by Hot Rod Lincoln, a local band that included Berger and other businessmen, he would wear Elvis garb – the white suit, the long scarves, the oversized sunglasses – and hop onstage to sing a couple of Presley numbers, typically “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Hound Dog.”
“He was a real showman, and he was pretty good at it,” Berger said.
Moffett liked to note that he was born on the same date, Aug. 16, that Presley died in 1977.
He died at Seton Hospital in Austin while listening to Presley songs, on Presley’s birthdate.
