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After achieving financial success he felt very strongly that he wanted to help open educational opportunities for young people, particularly in southwest Missouri and the surrounding region, to give them a better educational start than he was able to have. Plaster understood that hard work is the key to success and that the effectiveness of hard work is multiplied by having a good education. Plaster was awarded an honorary doctorate in Business Administration from Southwest Baptist University and an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Missouri Southern State University, formerly Joplin Junior College. Plaster believed in hard work and in the free enterprise system that gave him the opportunity to become successful. Plaster was co-founder and active supporter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and was a member of their Executive Board until the time of his death in 2008. Plaster founded Evergreen Investments, LLC, which invests in numerous enterprises. Empire Gas rapidly became one of the largest retail LP gas distributors in the United States and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Īfter selling Empire Gas in 1996, Mr. Treasury Department and then for a Liquid Propane gas corporation before starting his own LP gas company, Empire Gas Corporation, in 1963.
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After three semesters he could no longer afford tuition and instead went to work full time. Plaster attended Joplin Junior College pursuing a degree in accounting. She taught him that "can’t never could," a philosophy he carried and applied all his life.Īfter graduating from high school, Mr. From an early age, his mother impressed upon him the importance of thinking positively.
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He worked at a local grocery store as well as running a paper route at Camp Crowder and established a strong work ethic. Times were tough, and he began working as a young boy to help support the family. Plaster was born during the Great Depression and raised in the small southwest Missouri town of Neosho.
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