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Mollner founded pistachio empire
• Until 1970, he worked as a pharmacist, then in the securities and insurance business.
Henry O. Mollner, founder and president of the Pistachio Corp. of Arizona Inc., died of cancer Tuesday at University Medical Center. He was 62.
A native of Omaha, Neb., Mr. Mollner came to Tucson in 1954 in search of relief from chronic asthma and a degree from the University of Arizona. By 1959, after graduating from the College of Pharmacy, he had achieved both goals.
”Henry had a great sense of humor,” said Michael Goldwater of Scottsdale, son of the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, who formed a lasting friendship with him in college. ”He answered an ad ‘highest-paying job in least desirable place’ and went to work in a drug store in Indio (Calif.).”
Mr. Mollner practiced as a registered pharmacist in California and Arizona until entering the securities and insurance business in San Francisco in 1966. From 1967 to 1970, he was manager for Capital Funding Corp. of San Francisco, which also had offices in Phoenix.
Gathering information on the new domestic crop of pistachios in the Bay area in 1969, Mr. Mollner returned to Arizona in 1970 and persuaded three former UA classmates – a farmer, an attorney and an accountant – to develop pistachio groves in their state.
His pistachio company was launched in November of that year.
Trees to cover 40 acres were purchased from California in early 1971. Simultaneously, a pistachio tree nursery was started in Phoenix, where the company raised between 15,000 and 45,000 new seedlings each year.
Mr. Mollner soon discovered that Bowie offered the best conditions in the state for growing pistachios. The first few nuts were harvested from Grove No. 2 in Bowie in 1978, the same year his company’s headquarters and nursery were moved to Tucson.
In 1986, the company built a new hulling, drying and finishing plant in Bowie, a facility that has been expanded four times since. In 1989, a roasting and salting facility was installed at the growing Bowie complex.
Packaging and shipping operations, along with corporate headquarters, were relocated at the end of the last decade to a large building near Tucson International Airport.
In all, Mr. Mollner supervised the planting of more than 1,000 acres of pistachios in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Argentina. And he personally tended to the operation of the nursery, still located on Shannon Road near Overton Road in northwest Tucson.
When the Rotary Club of Tucson reached 300 members for the first time in 1986, Mr. Mollner enjoyed being honored as No. 300.
He served as president of the Tucson Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, which merged last year with Gateway Inc. to form Compass Health Care Inc., and he was an active board member of the new agency. He also belonged to the board of directors of the 88-CRIME program.
Mr. Mollner supported UA athletics and belonged to the Wildcat Club, and was one of the Caballeros del Sol of the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
His voice boomed loudly when he sang as a regular member of the choir at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church.
”The man not only had a booming voice but a booming smile that lit up the room,” said retired New York businessman Jim Hill, who had roomed with Mr. Mollner at UA.
Mr. Mollner is survived by his wife, Diane; three children, Shannon of Houston, Joe of Newport Beach, Calif., and Meredith of Berkeley, Calif.; two stepchildren, Mia Peterson of Seattle and Matthew Kleifield of Phoenix; a sister, Monica Ostrom of Anchorage, Alaska; four brothers, Terry of North Hampton, Mass.; Larry of Omaha, Neb.; Mark of Pocatello, Idaho; and Greg of Seattle; and 10 nieces and nephews.
Visitation is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow, with the rosary recited at 7:30 p.m., at Evergreen Mortuary Cemetery and Crematory, 3015 N. Oracle Road.
Mass of the Christian Burial will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 8650 N. Shannon Road, with the Rev. Thomas Millane as officiant. Interment will follow at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road.
Friends are requested to make donations in Mr. Mollner’s memory to Compass Health Care Inc., 2475 N. Jackrabbit Ave., Tucson, Ariz. 85745.
(Dated Sep 10, 1998)
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Joe Miller dies, taught Gehrig
• The Tucsonan also struck out Babe Ruth during his semi-pro career, and founded a company.
Joe Miller, a Tucsonan who taught a young soccer player named Lou Gehrig how to play baseball and later struck out another semi-pro player named Babe Ruth, is dead at 95.
Mr. Miller died yesterday after a yearlong bout with diabetes and spinal problems resulting from a fall.
Son of a Holland-born fabric designer and a Lithuanian-born mother, he was born March 15, 1903, in the Bronx, New York, the third of four children.
He attended High School of Commerce in the Bronx, later entering Columbia University. While at Columbia, he became involved in semi-pro baseball as a pitcher.
During that time, he became acquainted with Gehrig, who was an avid soccer player, according to Mr. Miller’s wife, Ruth Reed Miller, his only survivor.
”My husband said, ‘You should join the baseball team.’ Lou Gehrig said he didn’t know anything about baseball, but my husband said, ‘Come on, we’ll teach you.’ ”
She said he also struck out Babe Ruth on one occasion, when both played semi-pro ball and before Ruth and Gehrig went on to become icons in the sport.
Mrs. Miller said her husband was offered a major league contract, but decided to complete his degree instead. He later earned a master’s degree in engineering and chemistry from Yale University.
He joined the British Navy in Canada during the fervor following World War I, but served only a short time.
On his return to New York, Mr. Miller went to work for the DuPont organization, later striking out on his own to found Pyrolac Corp. in Hawthorne, N.J.
Mr. Miller specialized in lacquer and other coatings. His materials have been applied to such varied items as boat bottoms, Lincoln furniture in the White House and Apollo spacecraft.
Fire destroyed his company in 1938, but through diligent effort and a generous government loan program, he managed to recover. Mr. Miller sold the company in 1972 and retired in Tucson.
His brother, the late Ed Miller, had operated a successful advertising agency in New York. Both retired to Tucson at the same time. Neither had married until Joe Miller’s marriage five years ago.
While the brothers worked in New York, they acquired a farm outside the city for a weekend retreat, and in decorating it, developed an avid interest in art.
Mr. Miller would go on to acquire an extensive collection dating to the 17th century. It included 68 original works – primarily by English artists, with a lesser number by early and contemporary American artists.
His wife said he was active in the University of Arizona art community.
Both brothers, she said, had a passion for music as well, and had kept their parents’ extensive collection of recordings from the early 1900s. They played them on a machine of modern design specially built to play old recordings.
No funeral service is planned at Mr. Miller’s request, his wife said.
”He had such good friends, and that was enough for him. He was just very peaceful and didn’t feel the need for a funeral memorial.”
(Dated Sep 05, 1998)
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John R. ”Jack” Williams
Ex-governor recalled as ‘decent guy’
• Williams’ death Monday prompts fond memories from friends, foes alike.
PHOENIX – Whether they were his political friends or his political foes, they agree on this: Former Arizona Gov. Jack Williams was one of the good guys.
Gov. Jane Hull praised Williams, who died Monday at 88, as a great governor, ”and, most importantly, a decent person.”
Williams served as governor from 1967 to 1975. He was also mayor of Phoenix for two terms in the late 1950s.
Former state Sen. Alfredo Gutierrez, who represented south Phoenix, said he remembers Williams as extremely conservative politically, especially when he took on the United Farm Workers union.
”To a great degree, he was demonized in the eyes of the Hispanic community,” said Gutierrez, who supported the union. ”When I was elected, I expected a thoughtless, ignoramus brute. What I met was a charming, delightful, interesting, bright and educated guy.”
Although Williams’ reputation preceded him in the most negative way with Gutierrez, ”Jack had time even for freshmen Democrats from south Phoenix,” Gutierrez said.
The run-in with the farm workers union, in which Williams signed a bill undermining the ability to unionize in Arizona, prompted an unsuccessful recall effort against him. Gutierrez said the courts ultimately found the bill unenforceable.
Tucsonan Scott Alexander, a former state senator who served in the Senate while Williams was governor, said Williams came into office facing issues no Arizona governor had faced before.
During Williams’ terms, the executive budget, the legislative budget committee, the state personnel system and a new state purchasing system were established. The Department of Public Safety was also born, despite objections from police chiefs across the state.
”He was governor as we went through many, many changes,” Alexander said. ”He didn’t take the power and exercise it right away. I think Jack was the perfect guy in a crucial time when we went through and transformed state government.”
Alexander said Williams had a good relationship with the Legislature, largely because he did not try to force his political desires down lawmakers’ throats.
Alexander recalled that in 1973 he crafted an open-meeting bill and took it to Williams. ”I said, ‘Jack, there has been talk that you and I haven’t been getting along lately. That’s not good for either of us.
‘I would like to have a little showing for the public that we are working together and not enemies.’ He held a press conference, and he presented me with the bill and said, ‘Go get it passed.’ ”
Alexander did, and Williams signed it.
House Minority Leader Art Hamilton, D-Phoenix, says it was a privilege to work with Williams, who was governor when Hamilton was elected to the Legislature.
”Arizona owes a great debt of gratitude to Gov. Williams and his family,” Hamilton said. ”His foresight and leadership created the foundation we build upon today.”
Senate President Brenda Burns, R-Glendale, said Williams’ ”unparalleled love for the state and residents of Arizona was evident in his tireless public service that spanned five decades. Arizona’s tremendous success would not have been possible without his wit, wisdom and leadership.”
Bob Scott, a newscaster for KTAR radio in Phoenix and dean of the Capitol press corps, said Williams, who once owned KOY radio in Phoenix, gave him his first radio job.
Scott said radio pay was not that great. But Williams started a plan to share KOY profits with employees. ”He really was a good guy,” Scott said.
Scott recalled playing the song ”Monday, Monday” by the Mamas and the Papas one day on KOY in the 1960s. The station was geared toward older listeners, and Scott’s choice of the song prompted a visit from Williams.
”We don’t play that rock ‘n’ roll on KOY,” Williams told him.
Williams’ conservative bent was also apparent when it came to boys with long hair.
”Kids who wore long hair really bugged him,” Scott said. ”He said, ‘They have not yet earned the right to wear long hair,’ ”
In Williams’ mind, that right was reserved for America’s Founding Fathers, who wore long hair, Scott said.
After Williams was elected governor, he sold his share of KOY, and Scott found himself covering his former boss.
After some particularly critical reporting, Scott said Williams told him ”With friends like you, who needs enemies?’ ”
Scott also recalled that as mayor of Phoenix, Williams and former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater worked to integrate public schools in Arizona. That took guts, Scott said, because at the time segregation was the norm throughout the nation.
Williams is survived by sons John R. ”Ric” Williams of Phoenix and Michael Maurice Williams of Tucson; daughter Nikki Newcome of Valdez, Alaska; and five grandchildren.
The late governor’s wife, Vera, died in December.
A memorial service for Williams will begin at 11 a.m. Sept. 4 at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, 6300 N. Central Ave., in Phoenix.
(Dated Aug 26, 1998)
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