It is with our deepest condolences that we announce the passing of Tom Nunes (T3) on August 5, 2024, at the age of 95 in Carmel Valley, California. Tom began his farming career over 70 years ago in the Salinas Valley and is known for his leadership and innovation in the produce industry.
Born into a farming family of Portuguese immigrants in Chualar, California, from a young age Tom helped his father riding tractor and working with him in the field. From these humble beginnings, Tom started two successful grower-shippers and garnered produce industry awards and honors. Despite these honors, he would have said his greatest achievement and pleasure came from his family, including his three sons, daughter, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
Tom graduated from high school in 1946 and attended Stanford University where he graduated with a degree in Economics. He married soon after graduation. The next year his first son, Tom Nunes (T4) was born. Although farming was not Tom’s first choice, he recognized he had to make a living to support his growing family. He immediately went to work driving a tractor with his father under the mantal of T. Nunes & Son farming 400 acres of vegetables for various shippers while every night scouring the newspaper for something else to do. Despite his many talents and potential career paths, it was the produce industry that ultimately benefited from Tom’s tireless work ethic, leadership, and innovation.
After farming for several years, in 1955, a good friend, Bill “Chopper” Brown approached Tom about starting a new company growing, harvesting, and shipping Iceberg lettuce. Tom and each of five other partners invested $5,000 and grew 400 acres of Iceberg lettuce for their new company, Growers Exchange, Inc. Unfortunately, that first year they lost their entire investment. Thanks to a loan from Bruce Church, Growers Exchange survived the second year, and enjoyed success with Tom as President from 1955-1965. Growers Exchange ultimately grew and shipped out of Salinas, El Centro, Yuma, Phoenix, Aguila, and Alamosa.
At Growers Exchange, Tom and his brother Bob Nunes began their life-long partnership. Bob had been working in sales for Kavanaugh Distributing Co. and when the person responsible for sales and marketing at Growers Exchange retired, Bob bought into the firm and took over that department.
Tom and Bob worked six years together at Growers Exchange. In 1966, they left to form Nunes Bros. of California, Inc., an integrated grower-shipper of fresh vegetables. Nunes Bros. immediately displayed innovation and creativity, pioneering film-wrapped lettuce and using this to launch a joint promotion offering 25 cents off Lawry’s Seasoned Salt on the wrapper of the Nunes Bros. lettuce.
The Salinas Valley Produce Industry recognizing Tom’s leadership at Nunes Bros. elected Tom to the Board of Directors of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California where Tom served as the Chairman during the 1967-1968 Association year.
Later, Tom and Bob developed a documentary of the Company that was shown at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco during the 1968 United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association convention. Viewed by United Fruit Company (Chiquita), their management was impressed and began courting Tom and Bob, intending to buy Nunes Bros. Although initially turning down the offer from United Fruit, Tom and Bob eventually accepted, along with four other Salinas Vegetable Grower-Shippers. The newly formed company, Interharvest, became one of the nation’s largest produce operations with Tom and Bob at the helm.
They later resigned, which triggered a five-year non-competition agreement. Never one to stay still, Tom studied real estate and landed a cameo role in the Oscar-winning production of The Godfather, Part II. However, at the end of five years, the produce industry beckoned, and Tom and Bob started The Nunes Company, Inc. in 1976. Eventually the Company became a truly integrated grower-shipper which included shipping, cooling, growing, and harvesting operations.
Tom once said, “We had a great advantage of building a company and then selling it and getting to start over. It allowed us to look at what we did right and look at what we did wrong and build a better company.” Tom believed that people were the Company’s most important asset, and the mutual loyalty and respect was evident as most of the top employees from Nunes Bros. returned to work with Tom and Bob at The Nunes Company.
Tom also believed that family was key to the stability and quality produced by the Company. Tom (T4) in sales, David in growing and land base, Jimmy in farming, and Bob, Jr., Bob’s son on the cooling and harvesting side. They have been instrumental in growing the Company from a modest 1,200 acres to over 20,000 acres in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
The core business of the Company was the population-heavy Northeast corridor where the Foxy® brand became synonymous with quality. By 1989 as a result of consistent quality and industry-leading awareness, including a marketing campaign with Brooke Shields and other celebrities, the brand has become recognized globally. Value-added operations, organic production, and strawberries extended the reach of the brand in the ensuing years.
In the late 1990’s, Bob and Tom started to turn over control to the next generation – Tom (T4) David, Jimmy, and Bob, Jr. The next generation, including Tom M. Nunes (T5) also began to learn the business.
Tom and his brother were honored by The National Steinbeck Center for their leadership and innovation with induction into the Valley of the World Hall of Fame in 2010 and by the produce industry with the E. E. “Gene” Harden Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California in 2017.
Then in 2018, T5, representing the third generation of the Nunes Family became President and carries on the traditions and culture created by Tom (T3) and maintained by his father, Tom (T4).
One of the last things my grandfather said was “trust” was the key to life, says T5. “Grandpa lived that, and you can see it in the loyalty of employees returning to The Nunes Company after the five-year hiatus, the growers’ willingness to accept a structure built on trust in the Company, the many long-term employees, and the customers who trusted that the right high-quality product would be there every time. Our family lost our pillar, and the industry lost an important and influential leader.”
