Trucking Software Company Founder J.J. Keller Dies

John J. “Jack” Keller, who founded trucking software firm J.J. Keller & Associates, died Wednesday, Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers reported.

Keller founded the company in 1953 and built it into a giant in the trucking and regulatory industry. The company, with headquarters in Vinland, Wis., employs 1,100 people, the newspaper said.

He will leave almost $80 million to the J.J. Keller Foundation, a philanthropic organization, his son Robert Keller, chairman and chief executive officer of J.J. Keller & Associates, told the Appleton (Wis.) Post-Crescent.

“Jack Keller was a true pioneer,” said American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves.

“He and his late wife Ethel invented the profession of helping trucking companies make sense out of reams of government regulations. We at ATA enjoy our longstanding relationship with Jack and his family business [and] are saddened by his passing,” Graves said in a statement.