David Kingston, M.D.
That's what the placard in the lobby was going
to say. For as long as he can remember, Dave
Kingston has been an ambitious kind of guy who
has wanted to do well in the world. As a young man,
born in Ogden, Utah, the native set his sights high.
Kingston served on a LDS mission to Cumorah
in upstate New York. He attended Weber State
University and the University of Utah as a pre-med
student, and served as an Army medic during the
Vietnam War and later attended Stanford Graduate
School of Business. Dave Kingston was going to be
a doctor.
But then a funny thing happened: Kingston
fell for an Idaho girl who, true to the stereotype,
came from a potato family. In 1973, Kingston went
to work at the sales desk of Hurley Produce, a
fresh-packing company owned by his father-in-law
Harold Hurley.
"My whole life, I had this idea of being a medical
doctor. Potatoes were the farthest thing from my
mind," says Kingston. "But a lot of young men at
that time were graduating college with no job. I
was starting a family, I really loved Idaho, and I
was offered a position and eventual ownership
of a business that was debt-free. I thought it was
a unique opportunity; I took it and it became a
passion."
Bass & Hurley, precursor to Hurley Produce,
began in 1948 and ran three packing plants in
eastern Idaho: in Rexburg, Ucon and Rigby. This
was the beginning of what would later become
Kingston Companies. Kingston's training was on
the job; he was immediately expected to man the
sales desk and load trucks, as well as perform any
labor whenever and wherever needed.
By Tyrell Marchant
Doing the Doing the
Most Good Most Good
WWW.POTATOGROWER.COM 9
2020 Russet Aristrocrat
Dave Kingston
