Frank Daniel Gerber (July 12, 1873 - October 7, 1952) was an American manufacturer of baby food.
[Ingham, p. 443-445]
Early life
Gerber was born in the town of
Douglas in
Allegan County, Michigan, in 1873. He graduated from Fremont High School of Western Michigan in 1887. He attended Valparaiso Normal School in
Valparaiso, Indiana, for one year, to learn to become a teacher.
Gerber’s father owned a tannery and Gerber joined his father’s firm when he was sixteen. Gerber became a partner of the firm within five years and managed it until it closed in 1905.
Career
Gerber founded
Fremont Canning Company
Fremont Canning Company established the baby food enterprise of Gerber Products Company.Ingham, p. 443-445
Founders
The company was founded by Frank Daniel Gerber and his father in 1901 in Fremont, Michigan. The canning company began with a US$10 ...
in 1901 with his father to market local produce for the farmers. They
canned
Canned may refer to:
* " Canned", an episode of ''Rocko's Modern Life''
* Canning of food
* Dismissal (employment)
* Drunkenness
* produced and conserved to be released on demand, e.g.
** Canned air
** Canned hunt
** Canned laughter
** Cann ...
the farmers' peas, beans, and fruits. This company was the basis of the
baby food industry.
Gerber became president of Fremont Canning Company in 1917 when his father died. This first year as president of the firm, Gerber had sales that exceeded one million dollars. Gerber expanded the facilities for year-round production in 1914-1915. Before the production was seasonal. Gerber's son
Daniel
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...
joined the company in 1920. He became assistant general manager of the canning company in 1926.
Gerber had a granddaughter named
Sally, born in 1927, who was sickly. Her mother Dorothy, wife of Daniel, would make by hand a diet of strained fruits and vegetables for her as a
pediatrician
Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...
had recommended. After getting tired of this she suggested to her husband that if his company could make tomato puree perhaps they could make strained peas.
Daniel then suggested to his father that they should look into making baby food.
[Shapiro, p. 28] Gerber experimented with test batches of strained baby food on baby Sally and other babies in the summer of 1927. Gerber also researched marketing possibilities.
Gerber began selling baby food through the canning company in 1928, using the "
Gerber Baby" as their logo symbol. The baby food was sold at fifteen cents each, much less than similar foods which were purchased through drug stores for forty to sixty cents.
Some twelve years later the baby food line was outselling the adult canned food products. The name was changed to
Gerber Products Company in 1941,
and in 1943 Gerber stopped making canned foods for adults.
Later life
Gerber died in 1952 and the firm was taken over by his son,
Daniel Frank Gerber.
Further reading
* Ingham, John N., ''Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders: A-G'', Greenwood Press (1983);
* Shapiro, Eileen C., ''Fad Surfing in the Boardroom: Managing in the Age of Instant Answers'', Basic Books (1996),
* Obituary, ''New York Times'', October 8, 1952
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerber, Frank Daniel
1873 births
1952 deaths
People from Fremont, Michigan
People from Allegan County, Michigan
Businesspeople from Michigan