We lost a unique and visionary American in Ross Perot.

We so often see Ross in the red, white and blue colors of an earlier America. Deservedly so. Here are notes from his Horatio Alger life story: Texarkana newspaper boy; midshipman shaking lands with Dwight Eisenhower at graduation; leading salesman for IBM, fulfilling his sales quota for the year on Jan. 2; Fortune cover boy as the nation’s first tech entrepreneur; advocate for Vietnam POWs; honored by the nation’s Joint Chiefs of Staff for working to make sure every American wounded in combat received the health care treatment needed; independent candidate for president of the United States, garnering the most popular votes ever by a independent candidate for the highest office in the land; humanitarian and philanthropist; devoted husband to the love of his life, Margot; father to five wonderful children and grandfather to 16. It is as if he stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting and lived the American Dream.

This portrait should not prevent us from losing sight of the truly visionary 21st century leader he was. He created the entire industry we now call the Information Age. IBM led the creation of the computer hardware industry that helped America win World War II. Ross created a company, Electronic Data Systems, that understood the next step was to marry hardware and software to transform pencil-and-paper business processes to electronic signals. This meant work could be accomplished faster, more efficiently and effectively, unleashing American business productivity and the innovation economy.

This also allowed implementation of visionary national public policy ideas, such as health care for all senior citizens and health care for the most needy. Medicare and Medicaid meant claims had to be submitted, reviewed and approved. Without data processing, policy ideals could not have been implemented. EDS under his leadership married hardware with software and a business mind-set of solving problems. We now call that computer services.

He talked about building a company, and that he did, first at EDS and then again at Perot Systems, attracting talented people like Morton Meyerson, Tom Walter, Bill Gayden, Les Alberthal, Jeff Heller and Davis Hamlin. He phrased that as “gathering eagles one at a time.”

So yes, he was a company builder, but he was even more; he was an industry creator. In the beginning there was Tom Watson of IBM and Ross Perot. He prepared the soil for Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell to bloom and flourish.

Then in the 1980s he articulated a vision that Texas, his home state he loved, had to diversify its natural resource-based economy to prosper in the 21st century. He knew the economy of the future would be predicated upon human capital and that our economy would thrive on services as well as goods, and that would require an educated workforce. Thus he lead the nation’s first state-driven education reform movement. His plan was adopted by the Legislature and followed by five governors of two political parties for 25 years. As a result, the Texas economy was prepared to diversify and boom in the 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s.

In 1970 he told me he wanted to take me horseback riding to see a piece of land so large and lacking in roads that we could only see it on horseback. He took me to a property of several thousand acres north of Dallas. We rode for several hours. Then he stopped and said: “I want to build a new downtown Dallas right here.” I couldn’t see a rooftop, let alone a road. I said: “How are you going to do that?”

He said: “It’s simple.” The global competition for the next 50 years will be for talent — not natural resources. Talent is attracted by affordable housing, good public schools and the time it takes to drive to a good job — and all that can be created right here.

That property today is known as Legacy. On the spot where we stopped on horseback that day now sits Toyota U.S. headquarters.

He was very human, but all characteristics were writ large. He could be challenging, demanding, irritating, driven, generous and loving. He described himself as the sand in the oyster that produced pearls. And he created many pearls.

He envisioned the future and fervently believed what could be conceived could be achieved. Ross had the tenacity to make many dreams come true. He truly transformed our state and nation. One of his favorite quotes was from Winston Churchill: “Never give in, Never give in. Never, never, never, never ...”

Ross, you never gave in. Now rest in peace.

Tom Luce is founder of Hughes and Luce law firm in Dallas and a former U.S. assistant secretary of Education and former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, among other government appointments. He recently founded the nonprofit Texas 2036. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.