| Herbert Nootbaar | |
 Nootbaar on his 103rd birthday in 2011. | |
| Birth: | 8 November 1908 Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Death: | 18 December 2016 Laguna Beach, California, USA |
| Age: | 108 years, 40 days |
| Country: |  USA
|
| Centenarian | |
Herbert Victor Nootbaar (8 November 1908 – 18 December 2016) was an American centenarian and businessman who endowed to various organizations and institutes. He is an Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Herbert Nootbaar was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States on 8 November 1908, to parents Max and Minnie Nootbaar. His father Max was a German-born police officer of Dutch heritage. The family moved to California in 1920.
Career[]
Nootbaar mainly worked in the agricultural sector, purchasing and selling grain and animal feeds. In the 1920s, he went to work for Taylor Milling Corporation, a very successful feed and grain business in Los Angeles, founded by J. Hartley Taylor. He married one of Taylor's two daughters, Dorothy, and moved up the ranks of the company.
In the 1940s, Taylor Milling Co. was sold to Ralston Purina, now owned by the Swiss company Nestlé. After J.H. Taylor's death in 1953, Herb and his wife inherited the family fortune along with his sister-in-law, Mary Barbara Taylor, which allowed him to endow significant gifts to charities and organizations. He was the president of the National Grain & Feed Association. He was also the chairman of the San Gabriel Valley Council, in 1954-1955.
Personal Life[]
Nootbaar was married twice. On 4 June 1930, Nootbaar married Dorothy Martha Taylor, the daughter of a grain producer for whom he worked. The couple had three children in total. A year after her death in 1982, he married his long-time employee Elinor W. Barker on January 30, 1983. She died on March 27, 2011, at the age of 87.
Herbert Nootbaar's great-grandson, Lars Nootbaar, is a professional baseball player currently playing for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Later Life[]
Nootbaar was a member of the World Affairs Council of Orange County. In the late 1990s, as a major donor for the completion of the Hall of Fame building and team offices of the University of Southern California baseball team at the Dedeaux Field, it was named the Herbert V. Nootbaar Baseball Office and Hall of Fame Complex. In 2007, he and his second wife Elinor created the Herbert and Elinor Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion and Ethics at the Pepperdine University School of Law.
Nootbaar was an acquaintance of Ronald Reagan and donated to his presidential library in Simi Valley. He was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2014, which is given to immigrants (and their descendants) with significant contributions to the United States. He turned 108 years old on 8 November 2016, in Laguna Beach.
Herbert Nootbaar died in Laguna Beach, California, United States on 18 December 2016, at the age of 108 years, 40 days.
Gallery
References[]
- Lagunan Herb Nootbaar Parties Like He's 103! Because He Is! Patch News, 12 November 2011
- Rewarding a lifetime of achievement Orange County Register, 18 May 2014
- The Crowd: Celebrating 105 years - and more to come Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2014
- Herbert Nootbaar Obituary Legacy (Los Angeles Times)