Salinas Valley vegetable giant Basil Mills dies

Basil Mills, founder of Mills Distributing, which was one of the leading vegetable grower-shippers in the Salinas through most of the second half of the 20th century, died Jan. 14 at the age of 91.

Mr. Mills was born Jan. 18, 1930, in Montevideo, Minnesota, the third of five children.  After graduating from high school in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, he attended the University of Colorado-Boulder for three years before serving in the U.S. Army in Germany from March 1951 to March 1953 during the Korean War.

After his discharge, he answered an advertisement for a job in the produce industry and moved to Salinas. He soon took a position with Royal Packing Co. for a couple of years and at the very young age of 28 started Mills Distributing Co. as a one-man cauliflower brokerage.  A few years later, he was joined by his younger brother Roger and the pair grew the company into one of the larger, vertically integrated grower-packer-shipper operations in the Salinas Valley.   

Published stories about the company in local papers reveal that at its peak Mills Family Farms and Mills Distributing Co. were shipping 10 million cartons of produce annually, produced on more than 12,000 acres of farmland. It sold more than 20 commodities under its “King O' Hearts” and “Boss” brands from its own land as well as that of other growers.

Mr. Mills was very active in industry associations serving as a longtime member of the boards of both Western Growers and the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California. In fact, he served as chairman of the board of Western Growers in 1997 and received WG’s prestigious Award of Honor in 2002. Actor Clint Eastwood, a fellow Monterey County resident and a friend, made a video congratulating Mr. Mills for the award, which was played at the ceremony.

The longtime area resident was also known for being generous with both his time and his money. He was a longtime backer of the United Way of Monterey County, with the president of that group noting in 2009 that both Basil and Roger Mills fulfilled $1 million pledges to the nonprofit organization between 1999 and 2005. Mr. Mills is also credited with establishing the local United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society, an exclusive group of donors that gives $10,000 a year or more.

He was also a big backer of the nutritional advantages of eating fruits and vegetables. He was a vegetarian before it was in vogue and was a founder of HELP (Healthy Eating Lifestyle Program), an effort to reduce obesity in children by helping them and their families adopt healthy eating habits.

Unfortunately, Mr. Mills’ produce industry career did not end well. Besides their agricultural ties, the Mills Brothers were involved in several housing development projects in Monterey County, including Monterra Ranch Properties, and a subdivision in King City called Mills Ranch.

In mid-2009, Mills Family Farms closed its operations and eventually company assets were auctioned off to help settle outstanding debts. At the same time, the brothers’ development entities defaulted on several housing loans, which were well publicized in the local paper. Press reports from the time blamed many factors for the demise of both the produce operation and the development projects, focusing on the spinach crisis of 2006, poor commodity prices over the next couple of years and the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008-09, which hit the housing market particularly hard.

Mr. Mills was pre-deceased by Eve, his wife of many years. He is survived by his brother Roger Mills; sister Melissa Bird; children David Mills, James Mills, Susan Mills and Katherine Mills; seven grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and many other members of his extended family.