Lester Wishnatzki, a pioneer in the Florida strawberry business, has died at the age of 96.
Wishnatzki was a long-time Lakeland resident and his Plant City business, Wish Farms, helped bring local strawberries to much of the rest of the country.
Wishnatzki's father, Harris, a Russian immigrant, started the family business with partner Daniel Nathel in the early 1900s. They owned push carts that sold produce in the streets of New York City.
Harris Wishnatzki eventually moved to Florida where he started a new brokering operation in Plant City to send produce back to New York City. His sons Lester and Joe grew the company into a big time operation that now does $100 million a year in business.
Long time employees are remembering Lester Wishnatzki as a tough but fair boss. Warehouse manager Jessie Williams started working for Wishnatzki as a 14-year-old boy more than 40 years ago.
"If you did that right, he would praise you for it," said Williams. "But if you did it wrong, you would hear about it for about 10 or 15 minutes."
Williams said he had been close friends with Wishnatzki for the past 20 years. He spent a lot of time at Wishnatzki's Lakeland home and helped him deliver strawberries to friends and neighbors at Christmas.
"Very generous man. Very generous man," said company vice president Chuck Hollenkamp, who knew Wishnatzki for 28 years. "Anything you wanted from Lester he would give it to you."
Hollenkamp said Wishnatzki was sharp even late in life. "That was important to him that he could show me his mind was sharp and he was sharp till the very end."
Williams said Wishnatzki always cared deeply about the people around him.
"Even up to last week, he would always ask about the people there in the company how they was doing," he said. "Was everybody all right. He was very dedicated to the people he know."
Funeral services for Lester Wishnatzki will be held Wednesday at Temple Emanuel in Lakeland.