Notable as the president and C.E.O. of AMERCO, which owns the U-Haul International company, he had a net worth of nearly 800 million dollars by late 2013.
After graduating from Massachusetts' College of the Holy Cross, he earned his MBA from Harvard University.
He is mentioned in author Luke Krueger's 2007 nonfiction work A Noble Function: How U-Haul Moved America.
He was born in Phoenix, Arizona, to Leonard Shoen (who founded the U-Haul company in 1945) and Anna Mary Carty. His marriage to Sylvia Shoen resulted in sons named Stuart and Samuel.
He and Discount Tire founder Bruce Halle are both Arizona natives.