Tom Russell, president of Pacific International Marketing in Salinas, CA, died on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at his home in Phoenix. The cause of death has yet to be determined.

Mr. Russell, who was 65, was very active in the western vegetable industry, noting just last October that he was involved in about 40 different partnerships involving virtually every stop along the produce industry supply chain. He was also very active in real estate development and in charitable work, including Dorothy’s Place, a Salinas-based organization that battles the problem of poverty.Tom Russell

Mr. Russell, was born in Phoenix on Nov. 3, 1951, the son of a banker. His father did participate in the ag lending universe, but Tom was not exposed to the agricultural industry and really had no plans to go in that direction in his career. In fact, he went to Arizona State University, majored in business management, and first launched a career in martial arts. He competed in and taught karate for about a decade, calling an exhibition in Madison Square Garden as the undercard to a Mohammed Ali boxing exhibition in the early 1970s a highlight of his career.

Early in his life, he met a woman and married into a Phoenix produce industry family, beginning his career at the J.A. Wood Co. The end of that relationship pushed him on his own and he became what he called “a hired gun.”  

“It was the early 1980s and there were a lot of 30-day fields,” he said. “I went from deal to deal selling the production and then moving on.”

Mr. Russell spent time in Alamos, CO, Las Cruces, NM, Brawley, CA, Salinas and Phoenix. Wherever there was a crop in need of a salesman, he would go. He made lots of friends and turned many of them into partners. Vic Smith of the JV Smith Cos. in Yuma was one of his longest-running partners, as that relationship was close to 40 years old.  

Will Rousseau of Rousseau Farming in Tolleson, AZ, another long-time partner, said, “I’ve been farming for 38 years. I can’t tell you exactly when we hooked up but it was well over 30 years ago.”

Rousseau called Mr. Russell “a financial genius and natural born salesman — a combination that you usually don’t find it the same person, but it was definitely true with Tommy.”

He added that he was “a wonderful partner” in many different endeavors with each partnership being a positive experience, “which is not something you can say about too many partners.”

Mr. Russell formed the PIM partnership with Dave Johnson in the mid-1980s, formally incorporating several years later. In October of 2016, he was hard-pressed to define Pacific International Marketing. “Everyone asks me that. What are we? We’re a confederation. We have a bunch of different growers and we work together on a lot of different crops.”

Mr. Russell said the key to PIM’s success is finding the right partners, giving each of them an equity position and sticking with them for seemingly decades.

PIM General Counsel Steve Tripp, who is a stockholder of the operation and Mr. Russell’s brother-in-law, said, “Tom got his start in karate and he approached business with the same intensity that he approached martial arts.”

He added that Mr. Russell very much enjoyed making the deal, and had great success and fun in the Phoenix real estate industry once he relocated there in the middle of 2015.

Tripp said longtime partner Dave Johnson has assumed the presidency at PIM, while David Black, the previous chief operating officer, has been named vice president.

Mr. Russell is survived by Carol, his wife of 33 years, as well as three daughters, Sarah, Anna and Olivia, and a son, John, who works for Rousseau Farming. He is also survived by his brother, Mark Russell, who runs the Phoenix office for PIM, and his sister, Lamorah Tripp.