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DENVER (Reuters) - Western wear maker Jack A. Weil, whose distinctive snap-button shirts became as popular with celebrities as with working cowboys, has died at the age of 107, his family said on Thursday.
Believed to be the oldest CEO in America, “Papa Jack” as he was known, created Rockmount shirts that featured metal snaps rather than buttons, a design that revolutionized the Western apparel industry and found a place in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
“It’s the longest running shirt design in America -- Western or otherwise,” his grandson Steve Weil said in a statement on Thursday.
Weil worked daily at his Denver-based company Rockmount Ranch Wear Manufacturing Co. until falling ill recently.
“Papa Jack died at home (Wednesday) surrounded by family,” Steve Weil said.
Born in Evansville, Indiana in 1901, Weil moved to Denver in 1928. In 1946, he started Rockmount in the city’s warehouse district, where it still operates.
Over the decades, his shirts with the diamond-shaped snaps and jagged saw-tooth pockets became popular among politicians, actors and musicians. “I guess I was just lucky that every kid wants to be a cowboy,” he told Reuters in a 2006 interview.
Among his customers were Ronald Reagan, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Nicholas Cage. More recently, Rockmount shirts were worn by the late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in the 2005 Academy Award-nominated movie, “Brokeback Mountain.”
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter lauded Weil as a “legendary Coloradan and pioneering Denver businessman (whose) legacy will live on for at least another 107 years.”
, founder and CEO of Rockmount Ranch Wear died on August 13 at the age of 107 in Denver, Colorado. He was the oldest working CEO in the United States. He was also known as "Papa Jack".

He was born on March 28, 1901 in , Indiana. In 1946, Weil rented a space at 1626 Wazee Street in Denver and set about trying to create a fashionable yet practical identity for the western ranchers of the region.

Weil was well-known for coining the phrase "The West is not a place, it is a state of mind." He was the first person to put snaps on , patented the saw-tooth pocket design seen on many Western shirts, and was credited with inventing the .

In 2001, he told Associated Press, "I learned fast you can't sell to cowboys; they have no money. You have to appeal to the cowboy in everyone and sell to them."

Among his customers were , ,  and . More recently, Rockmount shirts were worn by the late  and  in the 2005 Academy Award-nominated movie, ''''. 

Weil's wife, Beatrice Baum, died in 1990, followed by his son Jack B. in January 2008.

"I never wanted to be the richest man in the cemetery," he told his grandson and current president of the family business.