My father worked for Gerber from 1948 to 1984. He started at Gerber’s plant in Oakland, California. Our family moved to Fremont, Michigan, where Gerber was headquartered, in 1963 (I was 8 years old at the time). My dad was a chemist by trade and was a problem-solver whenever production lines had problems. He traveled to Rochester many times over the years.
The Gerber family sold their shares in the company to a Swiss pharmaceutical firm called Sandoz circa 1994. Sandoz and another Swiss company, Ciba-Geigy, merged and formed Novartis.
When Novartis acquired Gerber, they wrote in their annual report that the laboratory where my father worked was the largest privately funded infant nutrition research institution in the world. Gerber is today owned by Nestle.
One thing about the Gerber baby: the original sketch has never been edited. Contrast this with Betty Crocker, who seems to undergo an almost annual revision.
Today, Gerber food products are made only at two locations in the USA: Fremont: and fort Smith, Arkansas.
In the ‘50s, as a very young woman, I volunteered at Republican headquarters in Grand Rapids Michigan. They asked me to stay as a paid employee because I could forge Dan Gerber’s signature perfectly on fundraising letters. He was the honorary head of the party in Michigan.
My kids were raised on Gerber baby food. I recently looked at the supermarket for Gerber applesauce I wanted for a recipe. It’s total krep today, filled with sugar and preservatives. YUK.