Jack Bloxom, once one of the principal owners of the complex partnership now known as Washington Fruit Growers based in Yakima, Washington, died Dec. 8 at age 92. He died at his Yakima-area home under hospice care, said Don Gibson, his longtime business partner.
Bloxom — full name John Megrath Bloxom Jr. — worked as the horticulturist for Washington Fruit from 1954 to 1988.
He served as president and CEO of Mount Adams Orchards and Underwood Fruit, from 1988 to 2008, and was then succeeded by Gibson. That company is now collectively named Mount Adams Fruit. Though long retired, Bloxom still occasionally showed up at the office, Gibson said.
Bloxom held numerous board positions in tree fruit industry groups, including the former Washington State Horticultural Association, the Fresh Pear Committee, Washington State Fruit Commission, the Yakima Pomological Club and Pear Bureau Northwest, Gibson said. He was the Washington State Tree Fruit Association’s Silver Pear Award winner in 1991 and a 1978 participant in the Washington Agriculture and Forestry Education Foundation. •
