Southwest Airlines’ stock price soared the day after the recent death of its 87-year-old founder Herb Kelleher in what seems to be a fitting tribute to a corporate leader who started the company without any aviation experience and provided low-fare competition to rivals that tried and failed to squash his bold vision and determination.

The stock price of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) rose 4.92 percent, or $2.24 a share, on Jan. 4, the day after Kelleher died. Even though airline stocks generally climbed in unison that day, I can imagine the unbridled laughter of the fun-loving, people-focused Kelleher, as well as visualize a beaming smile on his face upon learning of the stock price’s take-off the day after his death.

I have special insights about Kelleher’s management style and Southwest’s corporate culture that I gleaned when I covered the industry as a beat earlier in my career and attended the company’s annual media day twice. I met and spoke with Kelleher, who graciously made himself and his fellow company leaders available to explain their mission of offering low fares and great service in an industry that sometimes provided neither.

Kelleher, who started an airline that has turned profits consistently for 46 straight years while also helping his passengers save money on their air fares, had dressed up as Elvis Presley, a woman, the Easter bunny, a leprechaun and a flight attendant over the years to promote Southwest Airlines. He also enjoyed cigarettes, Wild Turkey bourbon whiskey and performing in rap songs for employee training videos.

In addition, Kelleher famously settled a dispute involving the airline’s "Just Plane Smart" marketing slogan by arm wrestling. The tiff ended up resolved amicably with an agreement to share the slogan while raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland.

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Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce,Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz.