Extracted from The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA)
Sunday, February 17, 1991

Robert J. Di Giorgio; Retired Chairman of Conglomerate

Robert J. Di Giorgio, former board chairman of the Di Giorgio business empire, has died after a long illness. He was 80. Di Giorgio, who died Wednesday, retired in 1982 but remained a member of the board of directors and chairman of the executive committee of Di Giorgio Corp.

The Di Giorgio Corp., which began as a 35,000-acre fruit farm founded by Di Giorgio's uncle, developed under his leadership into a diversified international marketing concern that included food processing, drug and food distribution, building materials and real estate development.

He was a member of the boards of directors of Bank of America, Carter Hawley Hale Stores, Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co., Union Oil of California and Newhall Land & Farming.

Di Giorgio was born in New York City and educated at the Lawrenceville School, Yale University and Fordham Law School.

In 1937, he joined the family business and served as treasurer and executive vice president before becoming president in 1962. In 1971 he was named chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate that at one time had 30 divisions.

He remained proud of the role the company played during World War II of maintaining many of the orchards owned by Japanese-American families incarcerated during the conflict. The farms were given back to the returning families.

After the war, Di Giorgio raised $1 million for several San Francisco youth agencies. He served as a trustee of the University of Southern California.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia Kuhrts Di Giorgio, four children, a sister and five grandchildren.
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Extracted from The Evening Tribune (San Diego, CA)
Thursday, February 21, 1991

Robert Di Giorgio dies key developer of Borrego Springs

Robert Di Giorgio, a partner in the development of Borrego Springs and head of a billion-dollar corporation, died Feb. 13 in San Francisco. He was 79.

Mr. Di Giorgio had been president of the Di Giorgio Corp., which had interests in agriculture, food, drugs, construction, real estate and the development of electricity.

In 1955, he joined with the late James S. Copley, chairman of Copley Newspapers, and Texas oilman William H. Black, owner of La Jolla Farms, to develop Borrego Springs on 6,000 acres.

At the time, Mr. Di Giorgio was vice president of Di Giorgio Fruit Co. of San Francisco, which later became Di Giorgio Corp. as it diversified. The original firm was founded by Mr. Di Giorgio's uncle, the late Joseph Di Giorgio, on a 35,000-acre fruit farm in Kern County.

In 1943, Joseph Di Giorgio leveled 1,400 acres in the Borrego Valley, sank irrigation wells, developed electricity and planted grapes. He died in 1951.

Robert Di Giorgio was married to the former Patricia Kuhrts, sister of George Kuhrts of Borrego Springs, president of the De Anza Water Co.

Mr. Di Giorgio was born in New York City, was a graduate of Lawrenceville School, a prep school, and Yale University. He also held a law degree from Fordham University.

He joined the family business in 1937 and became president of the company in 1962. He retired in 1981 but remained on the board and was chairman of the executive committee.

In Borrego Springs, the company built the Mall shopping center, De Anza Country Club, condominiums, the Roadrunner Mobile Home Center and the Rams Hill country club and residential community.

During World War II, the Di Giorgio firm took over and maintained orchards owned by neighboring Japanese families in the San Joaquin Valley when they were interned. The orchards were returned after the war.

In 1965, during the bitter struggle to unionize agricultural workers in an effort by Cesar Chavez, Mr. Di Giorgio broke with other valley growers and signed a contract with the AFL-CIO, of which Chavez's United Farm Workers was a part.

Mr. Di Giorgio was on the boards of the Bank of America, Pacific Bell, Union Oil Co. of California and the Newhall Land and Farming Co.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by four daughters, Ann Costigan of San Francisco; Barbara Di Giorgio of Danville, Calif.; Christine Timmerman of Atherton, Calif.; and Dorothy Moore of Menlo Park; three stepchildren, Pamela Rogers and Lane and Patricia Lou Sharman of San Diego County; a sister, Dorothy D. Gretsch of Long Island, N.Y.; and five grandchildren.