David H. Murdock
David Howard Murdock (born April 11, 1923) is an American billionaire businessman, plant-based diet advocate and philanthropist. Early career Murdock was born on April 11, 1923, in Kansas City, Missouri. His father was a traveling salesman; his mother worked as a laundress and housekeeper to make ends meet. He is the middle child of three; he had two sisters. He was close to his mother, who died at 42 of cancer. He grew up in Montgomery Township, Ohio, and dropped out of high school in the 9th grade. He was drafted by the United States Army in 1943 during World War II. Upon relocating to Detroit after the war, Murdock was homeless and destitute. Due to a chance encounter with a good samaritan, he obtained a $1,200 loan to buy a closing diner, flipping it for a $700 profit ten months later. He moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and began working there, first in housing and then commercial real estate. When the real estate market collapsed in the 1960s, he moved to Los Angeles where he continued developing real estate opportunities, leading to a string of acquisitions. In 1978 he acquired control of International Mining. In early 1980s he became the largest shareholder in L.A.-based Occidental Petroleum, by selling the corporation his 18% share of the Iowa Beef Packers company. Businesses Murdock purchased Cannon Mills in Kannapolis, North Carolina, in 1982. At the time, the company was profitable and had no debts. He used the company's profits to pay back the loans he secured to make the acquisition before terminating 2,000 positions and selling the company-owned homes. He eliminated the company's $100 million pensions plan, taking $36 million to make personal investments and using the remainder to purchase annuity policies from Executive Life Insurance Company for Cannon employees. Executive Life later failed due to its own poor investments and reduced its payouts to retired employees. Murdock sold the Cannon Mills to Fieldcrest in 1985. In 1985 Murdock took over the nearly bankrupt Hawaiian firm Castle & Cooke, which owned pineapple and banana producer Dole Food Company. He developed Castle & Cooke's real estate portfolio into residential and commercial properties and turned Dole into the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables. Acquiring Dole privately in 2003, Murdock completed a $446 million initial public offering in October 2009 and the company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker DOLE until a private merger agreement was approved October 31, 2013. As a result of his purchase of Castle & Cooke, Murdock acquired ownership of 98% of Lana'i, the sixth-largest island in Hawaii. In June 2012 Murdock sold his interest in Lana'i to Larry Ellison. He owns other companies, including Pacific Clay. Philanthropy He has helped contribute to the redevelopment of a complex in Kannapolis, North Carolina, of a biotechnology research center, the North Carolina Research Campus. The research center is a joint public-private venture, involving major North Carolina universities and private investment. The site of the research center in the