Norton Simon - Early Life

Early Life

Workers at Val Vita, which later became Hunt Foods,
in Fullerton, California (c.1940)

Born into a successful Jewish family in Portland, Oregon, he attended high school in San Francisco, graduating in 1924. At his father's insistence, in 1925 he enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, but left his pre-law studies within the first six weeks to found a sheet metal distribution company. He enjoyed early success and invested $7000 in 1927 in an orange juice bottling plant in Fullerton, California which was insolvent and renamed it Val Vita Food Products Company. He soon added other fruit and vegetables to the product lines and purchased canning equipment.

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