Ross Perot on What He Treasured: ‘Texas-born. Texas-bred. When I Die, I'll Be Texas Dead. Ha!'

Editor's note: This story was originally published in November 2016. It is being brought back as part of our commemorative coverage of Ross Perot's life.As H. Ross Perot walks along a memorabilia-lined hallway at the Perot Group headquarters in Plano, he gently rests his hand on a glass-cased exhibit, channeling a favorite memory.Inside hangs the Winston Churchill Award he was given in 1986 for epitomizing the spirit of Britain's most famous statesman.Perot, only the third American to receive the coveted medallion, was honored for his work with American POWs in Vietnam in the 1960s and for organizing a strike team that rescued two of his EDS employees from an Iranian prison in 1979."When I got the Churchill Award, Prince Charles and Nancy Reagan gave it to me," Perot says. "Isn't it beautiful?"The ribboned medallion holds a special place in his heart. But his heart is big with many chambers.The 86-year-old self-made billionaire, patriot, two-time independent candidate for U.S. president and raconteur par excellence is also a sentimental pack rat.Nearly 10,000 personal mementos are plastered throughout the hallways and offices of what used to be the command post of Perot Systems before Dell Inc. bought the computer services company in 2009.  Continue reading...