Ronald C. Wornick

Ronald C. Wornick (born 1932) is an American food scientist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is best known for founding The Wornick Company, which was selected by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1979 to mass-produce Meals, Ready to Eat or MREs, a next-generation version of individual combat meals or C-Rations that brought greater menu variety and improved food storage and preparation options to servicemen in the field.[1]

Early life

Wornick, the son of Russian immigrants, grew up in Malden, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. While attending Malden's public schools, he took up the trumpet and formed a dance band at age 14. He moonlighted as a paid musician while attending Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

Upon graduation from Tufts University in 1954 with a Bachelor of Science, Wornick enlisted in the United States Army and was later assigned to its 82nd Airborne Division Band where he played the trumpet until being transferred to the army's food laboratory in New York City. It was during this period he began experimenting with food technologies, including food lyophilization or freeze-drying. While in the army, Wornick married Anita Lev in 1955.

Honorable discharge and graduate school

After being discharged from the army in 1957, Wornick entered graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, studying under the food scientist Bernard E. Proctor.[2] During this time he also worked part-time at the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) developing processes for testing the freshness of fish based on trimethylamine oxide levels. In 1959, midway through graduate school, Wornick took a temporary leave of absence from MIT in order to pursue a paid position as a library assistant at the research center of United Fruit Company in Norwood, Massachusetts.[3] At the time, United Fruit Company (the predecessor to Chiquita Brands International Inc) was struggling to contain the spread of a soil-born fungus destroying its banana farms in Latin America, known as Panama disease (Fusarium Wilt).[4] Wornick, who helped come up with a treatment for Panama Disease, was promoted to scientist and later a division president in charge of food processing.[5] MIT awarded him a graduate degree shortly thereafter.

Corporate career

In 1970, United Fruit Company merged with AMK-John Morrell to become United Brands. Wornick, by then director of corporate development, resigned from the company, acquiring its multimillion-dollar a year freeze-dried food division,[6] Right Away Foods Corporation in San Carlos, Texas where he moved to oversee operations. Wornick then began the management of Right Away Food which was ultimately purchased in 1972 by The Clorox Company, Wornick stayed on as part of its management team and served as a board member.

Contribution to MREs

In 1976, he resigned and reacquired the firm, later changing its name to The Wornick Company. In 1979, it was selected by the U.S. military to commercialize and deliver its newest version of the individual combat field ration, Meals, Ready to Eat or MREs.[7] Lighter and smaller than the old C-Rations, the MREs produced by the Wornick Company, weighed approximately 1.5 pounds and covered an area of .08 cubic feet. They revolutionized how and what servicemen ate in the field.

First put into service by the U.S. Space program,[8] MREs featured specially designed meal pouches known as "retort packages". The pouches, made from multiple layers of flexible laminate, allowed for the sterile packaging of a wide variety of fully cooked, thermo stabilized (heat-treated) high caloric (1,300 on average) meals. They could be eaten cold, warmed by submersing in hot water, or through the use of a flameless ration heater, a meal component introduced by the military in 1992.[9]

The Wornick Company eventually became a supplier of individual and group military field rations to the U.S. Department of Defense.[10] Its MREs were not only used by the U.S. military but foreign combat forces as well as international humanitarian aid organizations.

Wornick retired in 1995, selling the multimillion-dollar food conglomerate through an ESOP to its employees. He remained on the board until 1999. In 2004, The Wornick Company was purchased by Veritas Capital Fund II LP for $155 million.[11]

Private life

Wornick and his wife are private collectors of contemporary (also known as conceptual) craft.[12] Beginning in the mid-1980s, Wornick, a woodworker, began collecting pieces made from wood, ceramics, glass, fiber, and metal, in the mid-1980s, creating a contemporary craft collection.[13] The collection, which was bequeathed in part (250 pieces) to the Museum of Fine Art in Boston in 2007,[13] has been on exhibit at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, American Craft Museum in New York,[14] and the Oakland Museum of California.

References
  1. Darsch, Gerald, Evangelos, Kathy, "Warfighter Feedback Continues to Help Improve MREs." United States Army Acquisition Support Center Online Monthly (April 2007). http://www.usaasc.info/alt_online/article.cfm?iID=0704&aid=03. Retrieved February 6, 2008.
  2. Bernard E. Proctor, Nicholas Appert Award Recipient, 1956, Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-10-02. Retrieved 2006-11-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  3. United Fruit Historical Society, Online Biographies, "Thomas E. Sunderland 1907-1991." Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  4. McCann, Thomas, An American Company: The Tragedy of United Fruit. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1976)
  5. Ward, Gerald, Muniz, Julie, Shy Boy, She Devil, and Isis: The Art of Conceptual Craft, Selections from the Wornick Collection. (Boston, MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, 2007). 8
  6. The Wornick Company http://www.wornick.com/, retrieved on January 31. 2008.
  7. United States Department of Defense, U.S. Army National Natick Soldier Research, Developing and Engineering Center (NATICK) PAM 30-25, Operational Rations of the U.S. Department of Defense, 7th ed., (November 2006), 17-18. http://www.nsc.natck.army.mil/media/print/OP_Rations.pdf. Retrieved on February 6, 2006.
  8. MREs Facts, History & Shelf Life Information, Preparedness Industries Inc. http://www.preparedness.com/mrfahishliin.html Archived 2011-05-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on February 6, 2008
  9. Combat Index, http://www.combatindex.com/. Retrieved on February 6, 2008
  10. United States Securities and Exchange Commission. http://edgar-online/2005/05/27/000104746905-015971/Section22.asp Retrieved on January 27, 2008.
  11. https://archive.is/20060626170941/http://www.veritascapital.com/news/press_releases/2003/12.04.03b.html. Archived from the original on June 26, 2006. Retrieved May 14, 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. "Conceptual Craft Since 1984," Art Tattler Online Edition. http://www.arttattler.com/designconceptualcraft.html Archived 2010-05-18 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on January 27, 2008
  13. "Museum of Fine Art Becomes Leader in Contemporary Craft with Gift From Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick." Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Press release, May 1, 2007. http://www.mfa.org/dynamic/sub/ctr_link_url_4707.pdf Archived 2009-02-06 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 1, 2008.
  14. Grace Glueck (February 6, 1998). "Working With Grain: A Once Lowly Craft Now Glows with Ambition". New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2008. Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)

Further reading
  • Morris, Glen C., "The Army Food Service Program, Then and Now." The Quartermaster Bulletin, (Summer 1992). Retrieved from the online edition of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corp.'s Museum's "Traditions and History Page" regarding subsistence research January 31, 2008.
  • "Operational Rations Current and Future," Armed Forces Food and Container Institute, (Chicago, March 1963), 4-8. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  • Ward, Gerald, Muniz, Julie, Shy Boy, She Devil, and Isis: The Art of Conceptual Craft, Selections from the Wornick Collection. (Boston, MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, 2007).
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