Ronald C. Wornick

Ronald C. Wornick (born 1932) is an American food scientist, entrepreneur, art collector, philanthropist and vintner. 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. [ 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.]

Biography

Ronald C. Wornick, the son of Russian immigrants, grew up in Malden, Massachusetts, a working-class suburb north of Boston. While attending Malden’s public schools, he took up the trumpet and formed his first dance band at age 14. He moonlighted as a paid musician throughout his college years at 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 Band Division 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 the food technologies that would later distinguish him professionally, including food lyophilization or freeze-drying. While in the army, Wornick married his high school sweetheart, Anita Lev, in 1955.

After being discharged from the army in 1957, Wornick entered graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, studying under acclaimed food scientist, Bernard E. Proctor. [Bernard E. Proctor, Nicholas Appert Award Recipient, 1956, Institute for Food Technologists (IFT) http://members.ift.org/IFT/Awards/AchievmentAwards/AwardWinners/pastawardwinners.htm. Retrieved January 31, 2008.] 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. [United Fruit Historical Society, Online Biographies, “Thomas E. Sunderland 1907-1991.” Retrieved January 31, 2008.] 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). [McCann, Thomas, An American Company: The Tragedy of United Fruit. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1976)] 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. [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] MIT awarded him a graduate degree shortly thereafter.

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 multi-million dollar a year freeze-dried food division, [The Wornick Company, “About Us,” www.wornick.com, retrieved on January 31. 2008.] Right Away Foods Corporation in San Carlos, Texas where he moved to oversee operations. Wornick then began the hands-on 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.

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. [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. www.nsc.natck.army.mil/media/print/OP_Rationspdf. Retrieved on February 6, 2006.] 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, [MREs Facts, History & Shelf Life Information, Preparedness Industries Inc. www.preparedness.com/mrfahishliin.html. Retrieved on February 6, 2008] 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. [Combat Index, “Meals Ready to Eat.” www.combatindex.com/index.html. Retrieved on February 6, 2008] The Wornick Company eventually became the leading supplier of individual and group military field rations to the U.S. Department of Defense. [United States Securities and Exchange Commission Sec.edgar-online/2005/05/27/000104746905-015971/Section22.asp – 76K. Retrieved on January 27, 2008.] Its MREs were not only used by the U.S. military but foreign combat forces as well 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. [www.veritascapital.com/news/press_releases/2003/12.04.03b.html]

Wornick and his wife are further distinguished for their private collection of contemporary (also known as conceptual) craft. [“Conceptual Craft Since 1984,” Art Tattler Online Edition. www.arttattler.com/designconceptualcraft.html Retrieved on January 27, 2008] Beginning in the mid-1980’s, Wornick, an accomplished woodworker in his own right, began actively collecting master artisan pieces made from wood, ceramics, glass, fiber, and metal, in the mid-1980’s. Within 20 years, he and his wife had created one of the premier contemporary craft collections in the world. [“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. www.mfa.org/dynamic/sub/ctr_link_url_4707.pdf. Retrieved February 1, 2008.] The collection, which was bequeathed in part (250 pieces) to the Museum of Fine Art in Boston in 2007, [“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. www.mfa.org/dynamic/sub/ctr_link_url_4707.pdf. Retrieved February 1, 2008.] has been on exhibit at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, American Craft Museum in New York [Glueck, Grace, “Working With Grain: A Once Lowly Craft Now Glows with Ambition.” New York Times. February 6, 1998. Retrieved on January 27, 2008] and the Oakland Museum of California.

The Wornicks’ various philanthropic activities have included The Wornick Family Foundation, the Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School, based in Foster City, California in 1986, as well as the San Francisco Symphony and Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.

In 1995, the couple purchased a 45-acre vineyard property in the Napa Valley American Viticultural Area or AVA where the couple established a private residence and small winery known as Seven Stones.

References

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).