Business owner behind $10 million steel company dies at 63

Seven years before business success guru Simon Sinek wrote the book Leaders Eat Last, there was Ralph George: a gregarious former college football player-turned-construction entrepreneur. He always ate last, too.

George ate last at company-sponsored lunches, he told the Business Observer in a 2007 interview, from a lesson leaned during his 15-year U.S. Army. Career. A captain, his service included Ranger and Airborne school, and two stints commanding a Sarasota-based Florida National Guard unit. No matter the battlefield, recalled George, the leader always chowed down last — in case the unit ran out of food.