Financial News

Founder of Bob’s Red Mill, Bob Moore, dies at 94

11 February 2024

Bob Moore, the founder and bearded face of internationally distributed Bob’s Red Mill food products, died Saturday.

He was 94.

Moore, who remained on the board of the Milwaukie-based company until his death, launched Bob’s Red Mill in 1978 with the help of his wife, Charlee, after their family embraced a nutritious diet full of whole grains.

Bob’s Red Mill today offers more than 200 products — from whole wheat flour to classic granola to grain-free brownie mix. His grandfatherly visage — complete with cap, glasses, white beard and bolo tie — adorns every item, making his face recognizable on grocery store shelves in Oregon and beyond.

In 2010, for his 81st birthday, Moore turned over the company — estimated in 2004 to have annual revenues of more than $24 million — to workers through an employee stock ownership plan.

“I may have given them the company, but the boss part is still mine,” Moore told The Oregonian/OregonLive in 2010.

Today, more than 700 employees own the company in non-trading retirement account shares.

Bob Moore had his 81st birthday in 2010 and celebrated by transfering his business to his employees. His internationally successful whole-grain production business mills grains, operates a retail store and restaurant and ships products internationally from the big, bright red building in Milwaukie just off Oregon 224. On Feb. 16, 2010, Moore stops to ask how Lan Hughes is doing after her car accident as he walks through the warehouse where she fills mail order requests.

Bob Moore of Bob’s Red Mill Inc.. a Milwaukie company that sells about 400 types of stone ground grains in grocery stores across the country. Moore played a song on this upright piano just outside the production area for a visitor in 2005.

Moore retired from his day job at Bob’s Red Mill in 2018, at the age of 89.

Trey Winthrop, now CEO, said Moore’s spirit would remain with the company.

“He did everything in his power to leave us on a strong path forward,” Winthrop said in a news release announcing Moore’s death. “All of us feel responsible and motivated to preserve his old-world approach to unprocessed foods; his commitment to pure, high-quality ingredients; and his generosity to employee owners and educational organizations focused on nutritional health.”

Moore and his wife, who died in 2018, donated to Oregon State University to create the Moore Family Center for Whole Grain Foods, Nutrition and Preventive Health in the College of Health. They also pledged $25 million to establish the Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness at Oregon Health & Science University.

Moore is survived by sons Ken, Bob Jr. and David, plus nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Details about a planned celebration of life are to come.

— Beth Slovic, bslovic@oregonian.com, 503-221-8551

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