Zemurray, Samuel

Zemurray, Samuel

▪ American entrepreneur
original name  Samuel Zmuri 
born July 18, 1877, Shargorod, Ukraine
died Nov. 30, 1961, New Orleans

      longtime president and financial director of United Fruit Company (name changed to United Brands Company (United Fruit Company) in 1970), preeminent developer of agriculture in 13 nations of the American tropics, responsible for introducing about 30 crops from the Eastern tropics.

      At 15 Zmuri (who 10 years later “Americanized” his name to Zemurray) arrived in New York City as a steerage passenger. He freight hopped to Selma, Ala., where he found employment at $1 per week as a chicken catcher for a wagon-side peddler. At 19 he became a banana stevedore at Mobile and almost immediately began also to buy and sell discarded “ripes” to inland grocers. In 1903 he established his own banana-importing company, in 1905 his first shipping line, and in 1910 the Cuyamel Fruit Company of Honduras. In 1929 Cuyamel was purchased by United Fruit, of which Zemurray, as the largest individual shareholder, became a director. Four years later he took over as managing director and in 1938 as president. His attainments in Latin America included pipeline spraying, overhead irrigation, and sponsorship of some 22,000 Latin American farmers as independent banana producers; nonetheless, the company came to be associated by many with U.S. economic exploitation.

      Zemurray's principal charities and philanthropies included the founding of a four-year inter-American agricultural school in Honduras (Escuela Agricola Panamericana), the Middle American Research Institute, the medical school at Tulane University at New Orleans, a chair of anthropology at Harvard University, the Boston Symphony, the New School for Social Research in New York City, New Orleans' first charity hospital for black women, and several child-guidance centres and treatment clinics for crippled or retarded children.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • ZEMURRAY, SAMUEL — (1878–1961), U.S. business executive. Zemurray, who was born in Kishinev, Russia, went to the U.S. at the age of 14. After working at several jobs, he became a banana peddler in Alabama at the age of 20 and quickly rose to wealth. He became co… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Zemurray — Samuel Zemurray (* 18. Januar 1877 in Chişinău Bessarabien; 30. November 1961 in New Orleans) war ein US Bananenunternehmer. Er gründete die Cuyamel Fruit Company diese spielte eine wichtige und kontroverse Rolle in der Geschichte von Honduras …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Sam Zemurray — Samuel Zemurray (January 18, 1877 November 30, 1961) was a U.S. businessman. He made his fortune in the banana trade and founded the Cuyamel Fruit Company, which played a significant and controversial role in the history of Honduras. Zemurray… …   Wikipedia

  • Sam Zemurray — Samuel Zemurray (* 18. Januar 1877 in Chișinău Bessarabien; † 30. November 1961 in New Orleans) war ein US Bananenunternehmer. Er gründete die Cuyamel Fruit Company diese spielte eine wichtige und kontroverse Rolle in der Geschichte von Honduras …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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