Industry veteran Dick Keim dies
Industry veteran Dick Keim dies
Dick Keim, who had a very active life and storied produce career stretching from citrus to tomatoes to avocados died on Nov. 27 at the age of 80.
Mr. Keim grew up in Tucson, AZ, the son of a produce distributor and then moved to California more than 50 years ago to start his own citrus packing company. He was involved in several different companies over the years in several different crops and even owned a wholesale business in Los Angeles for a while.
Dick Keim
According to Luawanna Hallstrom, who hired him late in his career at Oceanside Produce Co. in Oceanside, CA, "He was the first person to export grapefruit to Japan."
Hallstrom met him when she was trying to establish a marketing team at Oceanside Produce in the early 1990s for her uncle's farm, Harry Singh & Son. The company was a well-known and respected grower of pole tomatoes that decided it wanted to market its own fruit.
"When I meet Dick, I knew he was the right guy," she said. "The idea was to bring him in so he could teach the family about marketing and also bring another person in who he could train to take over the marketing department. That was Bill Wilber (current vice president at Houwelings Nurseries in Oxnard, CA). Dick stayed with us for a long time. I think it was well over a decade, and then he stayed with us as a consultant when he turned it over to Bill."
Hallstrom called him a "great teacher" and an "amazing man. I've never known anyone who lived life so fully."
She said he loved taking pictures of birds and always wanted to pursue that aspect of his life. So after retiring from the produce industry in 2006, he moved down to Costa Rica and did follow that path. In fact, on his Linkedin page, he relates his experiences of much of the last decade: "I retired to Costa Rica in 2006, and am active in wildlife photography. I have traveled to all seven continents and 48 countries doing photography as well as business. In 2012, I was asked to come back to help form a new tomato growing company. I live most of the year in Costa Rica and go back to California as the need arises."
At the time of his death, he was once again employed by the Harry Singh family at their new operation, West Coast Tomato Growers, also in Oceanside.
Hallstrom, who is not involved with that company, said Mr. Keim was a great family man very proud of his kids and his career.
"I am very saddened by his loss. He was a great man," she said.
