James Dole
James Drummond Dole (born September 27, 1877 in Jamaica Plain , † May 20, 1958 in Honolulu ) was an American entrepreneur and founder of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company , from which the Dole Food Company emerged . As a pioneer of the pineapple industry in Hawaii , he was also called the "pineapple king".
Childhood and academic years
Dole was born in Jamaica Plain, a suburb of Boston , Massachusetts , to Pastors Charles Fletcher Dole and Frances Drummond . He attended the Roxbury Latin School in Roxbury , another suburb of Boston. He spent his summer vacation in the country, at his parents' summer home in Southwest Harbor , Maine , where he developed a love of working in their vegetable garden. His father wanted him to be a pastor too, but James Dole saw his calling in agriculture. Although his school grades were not excellent - he failed in German and logarithm - he was admitted to Harvard University in 1895 . There he focused on agricultural science at the Bussey Institute. After graduating in 1899, he sold his small sailboat, which he often sailed around in his spare time, for $ 94, took his $ 1,500 savings, and went to Hawaii. Shortly after he was 22 years old, he arrived in Honolulu in 1899. He initially stayed with a relative, Sanford Dole . Shortly afterwards, the bubonic plague broke out in the city and Honolulu was quarantined for six months.
Early years as an entrepreneur
The Territorial Government of Hawaii offered land for sale to new settlers who wanted to farm. Since Dole's savings weren't enough, he had to borrow three times the sum to buy the land. He bought a 64- acre lot in Wahiawā , 38 km from Honolulu, and settled there on August 1, 1900. After experimenting with different fruits, he decided to grow pineapples, although other farmers had failed with this product. The fruit rotted away during the long journey to the mainland. However, Dole came up with the idea of canning pineapples. In the spring of 1901, he first planted 75,000 pineapple plants on 12 acres. When Dole founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in December of the same year , the local newspaper The Honolulu Advertiser described it as "a daring endeavor that has been tried unsuccessfully and is sure to fail again." To set up a canning factory in his barn, Dole again needed capital. He returned to Boston shortly and was able to raise $ 14,000 from family and friends. In the summer of 1903 he packed his first boxes in 1893 with canned pineapples, which he had laboriously produced with hand-operated machines. Impressed by his vision and perseverance, he was able to convince investors in San Francisco a year later to put 50,000 US dollars into his company.
Years of growth
When production exceeded sales in 1907, Dole began advertising pineapples on the mainland with newspaper ads. The fruit was still unknown to many consumers. As a result, demand rose so much that he could no longer keep peeling enough pineapple by hand, as was customary up to now. To find a solution, he hired the draftsman Henry Ginaca of the Honolulu Iron Works in 1911. He developed a pineapple peeling machine that was able to peel and core 35 pineapples per minute, and two years later even 100 per minute. This ginaca machine is still used in the pineapple industry around the world today. By 1915, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company had grown into Hawaii's second largest industrial company. The demand for his canned food was so strong that Dole bought the Hawaiian island of Lānaʻi in 1922 to grow pineapples on an initial 14,000 acres. Production rose to over 2 million boxes a year later. When sales fell during the Depression of 1930-1933, Dole was driven out of management by the board of directors. In 1932 Castle & Cooke acquired 21% of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. Dole was only honorary chairman, a position he gave up in 1948 and retired from the company entirely.
Social progress
In 1915, Dole introduced workers' compensation for sick pay, in 1920 the company retirement pension, in 1921 share certificates for employees, who thereby owned 31% of the company, in 1922 he had model settlements built for the farm workers and in 1928 he ran it profit sharing for employees. While Dole was running the company, there was never a strike.
Private life
When his sister visited him after graduating from high school in Hawaii with her friend Belle Dickey, Dole fell in love with her and married Dickey in 1906 in his father's church. The couple had five children in quick succession. Dole died in Honolulu at the age of 80 after a series of strokes. He was buried on a slope of the Haleakala volcano in Maui , overlooking the pineapple fields.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ (including failures in German and logarithms) jphs.org , accessed on August 7, 2020 (English)
- ↑ Dole Packaged Foods Timeline 1915 dolesunshine.com , accessed August 7, 2020
- ↑ Dole Packaged Foods Timeline 1932 dolesunshine.com , accessed on August 7, 2020 (English)
- ↑ Jim Dole's Legacy harvardsquarelibrary.org , accessed August 7, 2020
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dole, James |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dole, James Drummond (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 27, 1877 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Jamaica Plain |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 20, 1958 |
| Place of death | Honolulu |