Bob’s Pink Mill Founder Bob Moore Has Died

Bob Moore, the founding father of longstanding complete grain meals firm Bob’s Pink Mill, died peacefully at his house on Saturday, February 10. He was 94 years previous.

Moore’s Milwaukie, Oregon-based firm has develop into probably the most well-known complete grain meals manufacturers worldwide, with greater than 200 merchandise distributed in 70 international locations. Moore was a chief within the stone-milled flour renaissance, opening his first mill within the Nineteen Seventies — a long time earlier than its resurgence within the early aughts; the corporate was additionally an early adopter and producer of gluten-free flours and baking mixes, making them extensively out there to many for the primary time. Later in life, Moore made headlines for turning over possession of the corporate to his staff within the type of firm inventory.

“He did the whole lot in his energy to go away us on a powerful path ahead,” Bob’s Pink Mill CEO Trey Winthrop mentioned in a public assertion asserting Moore’s demise. “All of us really feel accountable and motivated to protect his old-world strategy to unprocessed meals; his dedication to pure, high-quality substances; and his generosity to worker house owners and academic organizations centered on dietary well being.”

Moore was born in Portland, Oregon in 1929, transferring as an toddler to San Bernardino, California. He joined the military in 1947, constructing bridges and roads within the Marshall Islands throughout his years of service. He married his spouse, Charlee, in 1953, and so they quickly grew to become mother and father of three sons: Ken, Bob, Jr., and David. Charlee’s curiosity in vitamin and complete grain cooking impressed the household to lease a farm and start baking their very own bread. After studying John Goffe’s Mill, George Woodbury’s memoir about restoring his household’s water mill, Moore started voraciously researching the apply of stone milling.

On the time, stone milling had fallen out of favor, as metallic curler mills proliferated the market. Consider a wheat grain as an egg: The bran is the shell, the germ is the yolk, and the endosperm is the white. The bran and germ retain many of the vitamins in a grain; nevertheless, the way in which curler mills course of grain solely separates out the endosperm from the germ and bran. Stone milling, then again, grinds up the entire grain, retaining the germ and bran within the flour. Immediately, many celebrated flour manufacturers — King Arthur, Camas Nation, Cairnspring — depend on stone mills. So when Bob and Charlee opened Moores’ Flour Mill in Redding, California in 1974, they had been preserving a culinary custom alive, one that may proceed to affect bakers across the nation.

Bob’s Pink Mill

The Moore patriarch and matriarch left their stone mill to their kids and moved to Oregon to attend seminary college. Nevertheless, the 2 quickly stumbled throughout an previous feed mill on the market, and the couple opened Bob’s Pink Mill Pure Meals within the house in 1978, specializing in complete grains. Inside the subsequent 5 years, Bob’s Pink Mill started to enter markets across the Northwest, most notably at Fred Meyer shops. In 1988, the mill burned to the bottom, leaving solely the millstones; the corporate reopened in 1989, focusing extra critically on its gluten-free product line. Bob’s Pink Mill continued to develop, increasing nationally and, in 2000, internationally. Bob’s Pink Mill now sells an enormous number of grain flours and pantry gadgets, together with sorghum flour, 10-grain pancake combine, and textured vegetable protein, to kitchens all over the world.

In 2010, Moore celebrated his 81st birthday by transferring the corporate to his staff by means of an Worker Inventory Possession Plan, or ESOP. The checklist of employee-owned corporations stays small in the USA, which Moore attributed to company greed. “Firms may do that, however as a result of cash is the one issue, and the house owners and managers are typically looking just for their very own profit, and what [the] firm can do for them, I’m not so positive everybody cares to do this,” Moore informed Fortune in 2022. “Are available in, get as wealthy as you’ll be able to, get out — that’s their important thought.”

Outdoors of his firm, Moore was identified for his love of automobiles and airplanes, in addition to his philanthropic curiosity in preventative well being and vitamin packages. The Moores helped fund Oregon State College’s Moore Household Heart for Entire Grain Meals, Diet, and Preventive Well being; the couple additionally helped discovered the Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Diet & Wellness at Oregon Well being & Science College.

Moore retired in 2018, although he remained a Bob’s Pink Mill board member till his demise. He’s survived by his three sons, Ken, Bob, Jr., and David; daughters-in-law Dora, Barbara, Ashleigh, and Terry; 9 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren.