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Pop grew up in a small, rural farming town. Outside the corn, cotton, sorghum, and soybean farming which supplied his family’s livelihood, one of his first jobs during high school was working at J.C. Penney. This day-to-day work cultivated a set of business, sales, advertising, and merchandising skills which would later contribute to his future success. He was offered a full-time position after high school with J.C. Penney, but he instead enlisted for active military duty amid an escalating world war.

In 1942, Pop graduated the Air Corps training school as a Flight Officer, which he described as being “the highlight of my life.” Afterwards, he joined a special group of flight officers and became the first of his group to be commissioned into the Air Corps. Unfortunately, he would soon receive orders for embarkation to the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II where he would be relocated to Saipan of the Mariana Islands, leaving his friends, family, and beloved newlywed wife, Joan, behind. “You must realize that this parting was one of pain, for we really did not know if we would ever see each other again,” Pop recalled.

During his deployment in Saipan, Pop flew several missions dropping supplies desperately needed over camps holding American prisoners of war. While returning to Saipan on one of these relief missions, Pop experienced extreme weather conditions with zero visibility and little remaining fuel. A controller on the ground located Pop’s plane with a radar and directed Pop’s every move for a safe landing for himself and his crew. “I can clearly recall almost every word he used as he advised us of our position on the glide path, a little above or a little below the glide path, a few degrees left, or a few degrees right…”, Pop stated. “From that day, I have always felt that I was living on borrowed time, for this was the closest I had ever come to not being here today.” Thankfully, Pop returned from the war unscathed and was reunited with his wife, Joan, and from 1949 to 1963 they had 10 children together (8 boys and 2 girls).

Returning to Retail

In the years following the war, the grocery industry was growing at a tremendous pace as independent “mom-and-pop” grocery stores were opening at
every street corner. Pop saw an opportunity here and ventured into the grocery industry in 1950 with Malone & Hyde (M&H), a large food wholesaler who distributed food to independent grocery chains. For the next 26 years, Pop tirelessly worked his way up in management until he was finally asked to transfer to Miami, Florida as a Division Manager. In his new role, Pop wanted independent retailers to succeed and grow their businesses. He did whatever he could to make sure his customers and retailers could have the resources needed to be competitive and successful in the marketplace. Pop learned a lot about his new home and the Miami community during this time and as fate would have it, his transfer to Miami would end up being the opportunity that would later give him the chance to fulfill his dream of returning to retail.