SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE, 87, CALLS MICRON SHOTS\More drama in Simplot saga than soap opera.

Byline: Laurence Zuckerman The New York Times

From practically anywhere in this city, you can see the mansion on the hilltop, with its 100-foot flagpole stabbing the sky. Up there, anyone can tell you, lives Jack Simplot, the billionaire who has dominated the local economy for seven decades and is responsible for the jobs of more than 14,000 people in this part of the country.

He also has been embroiled in one of the oddest melodramas ever to unfold in the computer industry: the recent ouster, and reinstatement eight days later, of the chairman and chief executive of the chip maker Micron Technology Inc.

It is an episode that still defies complete comprehension. But it is perhaps best understood as the latest installment in the saga of a patriarchal 20th century industrialist - a story that happens to be true but reads like the script treatment for a television series in the tradition of "Dallas" or "Dynasty."

Celebrated in Boise as a living legend, John R. "Jack" Simplot, 87, likes to describe himself as "an old potato farmer." Still vigorous, he drives around town in a white Lincoln Town Car with "MR SPUD" on its license plates. His blue eyes twinkle with energy as he skis, plays cards with his buddies and - above all - makes deals.

Always one to seize the opportunities presented by each era's technological marvels, Simplot got his start in 1923 when he was 14. After storming out of his father's house in a huff, young Jack set himself up as a hog farmer.

His break came during a harsh winter, when feed grain was in short supply, but potato scraps and wild-horse meat were plentiful. He adapted the latest boiler technology into a rendering vat that produced a fortified hog slop. The next spring, when his competitors led their scrawny survivors to market, Jack Simplot made a killing with his fat hogs.

From this start evolved J.R. Simplot Co., eventually one of the largest private enterprises in the country - with interests in farming, food processing, mining and transportation and annual sales of $2.5 billion.

And then, in 1980, at 71, in what must be one of the greatest second acts in business history, Simplot decided to help a pair of local businessmen - twin brothers, believe it or not - who, against all odds, wanted to make computer chips in the heart of potato country.

Having yet again seized an era's technological moment, Simplot is today the single-largest shareholder in Micron Technology, one of the world's most efficient makers of the memory chips found in computers and other electronic devices. The 22 percent of the company's shares he controls is worth $1.8 billion.

"We make the best dang digits in the world," he bellowed in a recent interview in his corner office atop one of the nondescript office towers on Main Street. He was referring to Micron's chips and, though he himself does not own a personal computer, sounded like an avid reader of Wired magazine. "We're going to digitize the world," he declared.

He assumes that Micron's stock can pull out of the nose dive that has seen the shares plummet from more than $94 in September.

After rising $4.25 on Tuesday, the shares pulled back Wednesday, closing at $41.125, down 62.5 cents, on volume of more than 20 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, where it was the day's most heavily traded issue.

As the man who pulls the strings at Micron, Simplot has the self-made man's ideas about how businessmen should demonstrate their commitment to an enterprise - even if Micron is a publicly held corporation and Simplot has spent the bulk of his career running his own private empire.

These attitudes were apparently at play in January when Steve Appleton, Micron's 35-year-old chairman and chief executive, was dismissed by the board and then rehired little more than a week later.

Although Appleton and Micron have yet to offer any more than the vaguest of explanations, people familiar with the circumstances say the incident involved a clash of personalities on Micron's board, dominated by Simplot and two other wealthy farmers.

The uprising is said to have been fomented by one of those farmers, Allen T. Noble, 66, who had long championed young Tyler Lowrey, Micron's 42-year-old vice chairman and chief technologist, responsible for the company's edge in semiconductor production.

Noble apparently learned that Appleton was about to sell some Micron shares, a move that would be anathema to Simplot, known for holding on to his own Micron stock and urging others to do so. Though there is no evidence that Appleton has sold his stock recently, people say Simplot was outraged.

But soon after being named to succeed Appleton, the low-key Lowrey asked the board to bring Appleton back. Several other members of the management team also turned up the pressure by threatening to quit.

Noble denied that he was the cause of the rift, saying that the board voted unanimously both to accept Appleton's resignation and to bring him back. But in an interview, his affection for Lowrey was clear. "Tyler is to me like flesh and blood - even more so," Noble said, tears welling in his eyes. "He's an unusual person."

On Monday, Noble, who owns two million Micron shares, resigned from the board, saying that he wanted to spend more time with his sick wife and daughter.

Simplot declined to discuss details except to say: "Noble pulled a bad one. I put it back together."

The fissures in his personal empire have not been so easy to patch.

His first wife, Ruby, the mother of his four children, left him for her best friend's husband in 1946. A decade later, Simplot married his current wife, Esther, who was an opera singer.

Two years ago, at 85, Simplot passed the reins of J.R. Simplot Co. to three of his children and a grandchild. According to the company, the idea was Simplot's. But people close to the family said that the billionaire was pushed out by his youngest son, Scott, 49, who controls slightly more than a quarter of Simplot's voting stock.

The elder Simplot said that he agreed to give his son the larger share of the stock if he would run the business. But after spending some time at the company as a vice president, Scott, who has an MBA from the Wharton, showed little interest in following in his father's footsteps.

"He's smarter than I am. He doesn't want to work that hard," Simplot said of Scott, barely concealing his disappointment.

Within the family, the billionaire doesn't appear to have any other suitable candidates for successor. His eldest son, Richard, who battled an alcohol problem, died of diabetes in 1993. Richard's son, Ted Simplot, 40, now represents that wing of the family in the J.R. Simplot Co.

Simplot's next child - Don, 60, who serves on Micron's board - has been involved in several failing business ventures as well as marriages. A daughter, Gay, 51, who is divorced from Idaho Lt. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, has been more of the public face of the company in recent years but does not have much business experience.

Scott Simplot, who is divorced with two grown daughters, declined a request for an interview. But his father expressed confidence that one day this son would step up to the plate. "He'll work when he has to," he said.

His troubles with Scott are a sad reprise of Simplot's difficulties with his own father. "The old man was a hard worker," he said of his father, a farmer of some means.

But after an argument one day in 1923, when his father refused to let him attend a basketball game, Jack packed his bags.

More than 70 years later, the headstrong adolescent has become a headstrong octogenarian.

Micron had to be one of Simplot's biggest long shots. The company was founded in 1978 by Ward and Joe Parkinson, twins born in Blackfoot, Idaho. Many people thought the brothers were crazy to try to make semiconductors in Idaho. In 1980, Simplot joined three other local investors in backing the venture. As the company struggled, his stake increased.

Micron, which went public in 1984, finally hit it big three years ago when demand for its memory chips began to rise.

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Photo Micron CEO Jack Simplot, calling himself "an old potato farmer," dominates the economy in Boise, Idaho. Associated Press Chart (1) Weekly closes of Micron Technology shares (2) Strong Growth for Memory Maker