Ralph A. Weeks was one of Napoleon Hill's lesser known but important heroes. He purchased a small two-bus operation called Ridge Road Express in 1929 and grew it to 300 buses serving 10 school districts, transporting over 3.6 million students per year. In 1935, Weeks also purchased Grand Island Transit Corporation, which evolved into a full-service charter and tour company called Grand Tours. As a self-made businessman, Weeks clearly understood and applied principles of success espoused by Napoleon Hill, such as desire, self-belief, persistence, planning and organization.

1. Ralph A. Weeks - One Of Napoleon Hill's Heroes
Napoleon Hill's iconic personal development book 'Think And Grow Rich' details
principles employed by successful people from Hill's era, the nineteen twenties and
thirties, and is as useful and relevant today as it was then.
Many of Hill's Heroes, he admitted to a degree of hero worship, were famous
industrialists like Henry Ford, inventors such as Thomas Edison, famous politicians
like Woodrow Wilson and bankers such as JP Morgan. Others were less well known
though still important figures such as Ichthyologist David Starr Jordan, or Elbert
Hubbard instigator of an arts and crafts boom.
Perhaps the most modest and least known is Ralph A. Weeks. In 1929, after a year of
driving for a bus company known as Ridge Road Express, Weeks purchased the
company; a two-bus operation based in Jeddo, NY.
With Mr. Weeks behind the wheel of a 15 passenger 1927 Garford bus and Mrs.
Weeks driving a seven-passenger Buick Sedan, Ridge Road Express began its first
regularly scheduled line run, offering service between Lockport and Lyndonville NY
along Ridge Road (Route 104).
But, as times changed, so did the company and today nearly 80 percent of the current
operation is carrying students. With 300 buses and vans serving 10 school districts,
Ridge Road Express safely transports 3.6 million students per year.
In 1935, the Weeks family purchased Grand Island Transit Corporation (GITC), an
inter-city bus line offering service between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, NY across
Grand Island. Over the years, GITC evolved into a full-service deluxe charter and
tour motorcoach company now known as Grand Tours.
Ralph A. Weeks was clearly a man who understood what it takes to succeed and must
have used the principles Hill espouses in his writings, desire or ambition if you
prefer, self belief, persistence, planning and organisation – particularly in regard to
knowledge or information. A book on Hill's Heroes is in the final stages of
preparation by this author.