http://www.theledger.com/article/20090710/NEWS/907105049/1410?Title=Non-Grower-Still-Was-Fla-Citrus-Juice-Giant
EDWIN MOORE DIES
Non-Grower Still Was Fla. Citrus Juice Giant
By Kevin Bouffard
THE LEDGER
Published: Friday, July 10, 2009 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 12:06 a.m.
AUBURNDALE | Edwin L. Moore did as much as anyone in the 20th century to transform the Florida citrus industry, yet he never grew a single orange.
The scientist, who with his late colleagues, C.D. Atkins and Louis MacDowell, perfected the technology for frozen concentrated orange juice, died Friday at Good Shepherd Hospice in Auburndale at age 93. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Steele's Family Funeral Services in Winter Haven.
"It was my idea to do this, but my colleagues, Dr. E.L Moore and Mr. C.D. Atkins, did the doing," MacDowell told author John McPhee for his classic work "Oranges," published in 1966.
"There must have been billions of dollars made off of it, but he never made any money," said friend and colleague John Attaway, the retired director of scientific research at the Florida Department of Citrus, where Moore worked for nearly 60 years until 2001.
CHANGED INDUSTRY
Their frozen concentrate process transformed Florida citrus from a fresh fruit industry to the supplier of most of the 1 billion gallons of orange juice sold in the U.S. annually. Juice dominates the $9 billion Florida citrus industry with about 95 percent of the state's orange crop and 60 percent of grapefruit processed for juice.
But Moore's legacy to Florida citrus will extend beyond his signature discovery because he mentored many other citrus scientists who have and will continue to make research breakthroughs.
"He was such a giving person when it came to sharing his knowledge," said Sandy Barros, a Citrus Department engineer working at its facility at the Citrus and Research Education Center in Lake Alfred. "I used to call him 'the encyclopedia.' The amount of information he had was phenomenal, and he was always willing to share it."
Bill Widmer worked with Moore for nearly 13 years before moving to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Citrus and Subtropical Product Laboratory in Winter Haven, where his research focuses on productive uses, such as ethanol, for citrus processing waste products.
ENCYCLOPEDIC MIND
"He had a mind like an encyclopedia. He didn't forget anything he ever read," Widmer said. "I remember numerous occasions when I thought I had a novel idea, and Ed would come back with a 20- or 30-year-old article about someone else who tried it.
"Ed was certainly a resource for me to go to," he said. "If he could help you out with anything, he would go out of his way to do so."
MacDowell, then the head of the Citrus Department's research section, recruited Moore, son of a Massachusetts dairy farmer, in 1942 right after he received his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, which had a prestigious program in food science.
A lifelong stutter shaped Moore's personality and career. Colleagues consistently described him as taciturn except when discussing research.
"When you get into public situations, it (stuttering) tends to show up more. That's one of the reasons I thought this research stuff sounds good," he told The Ledger in 1983.
The U.S. military commissioned the frozen concentrated orange juice research during World War II to provide vitamin-C-rich orange juice to the troops. Concentrated OJ at the time had taste problems or was difficult to transport.
MacDowell administered the effort; Atkins, an engineering genius, built most of the equipment used in the research; and Moore played the classic "lab rat."
The problem with earlier technology was that juice flavor escaped with the water during the concentration process. The team discovered the key insight now known as "cut back," or mixing a small amount of fresh juice back into the concentrate mixture to improve flavor.
MOORE HAD IDEA
Attaway credited the idea to Moore. Wherever it came from, the team perfected the process by 1945. The USDA patented it in 1948 under Moore's, Adkin's and MacDowell's names, but the three never earned a penny of royalty money.
While too late for the war effort, frozen concentrated orange juice, or FCOJ, became the first modern convenience food. A small company called Vacuum Foods first embraced the product. It later became Minute Maid, now a subsidiary of Coca Cola.
Moore continued to work on improving the frozen concentration process over the next 50 years, Attaway said.
He also developed expertise on the nutritional qualities of orange juice, which became the central theme for the Citrus Department's multi-million-dollar annual OJ marketing program, said Barros and Robert Carter of Winter Haven, a retired department researcher who also worked on that effort.
MODEST STANDOUT
While FCOJ became the foundation of today's Florida citrus industry, Moore never boasted of the subsequent honors he and his colleagues received, his friends agreed. They were inducted into the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame in 1983, the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1986 and were listed among ''The 50 Most Important Floridians of the 20th Century'' - a special publication sponsored by The Ledger in 1998 that asked state historians to select those whose contributions were of lasting significance.
"Ed was never one to blow his own horn," Barros said. "He would tell you a story about the 15 or 20 other men who contributed more, and then he would change the subject."
Perhaps a Dec. 31, 1995, Calvin and Hobbes cartoon Moore framed and hung in his Lake Alfred home says as much about Moore the man and scientist as his accomplishments and his admiring colleages and friend.
Trudging through waist-high snow, the two characters marvel at the snow's transformative effect.
"It's like having a big, white sheet of paper to draw on!" Hobbes says.
"A day full of possibilities! It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy," Calvin replies, then, as they sled down a hill: "Let's go exploring!"
[ Kevin Bouffard can be reached at
kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or 863-422-6800. ]
