The Cupertino Courier

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Daughter remembers father as more than king of popcorn

By Erin Hussey

When most people hear the name Orville Redenbacher, they think of popcorn. For Billie Atwood, an active 18-year member of the Cupertino Senior Center, she thinks of her father--a go-getter whose life inspired her to do more than sit around the house.

"He wasn't the king of popcorn when I was growing up. He was just a daddy,'' said Atwood, one of Redenbacher's three daughters. "Daddy always wanted us to do as much as we could and expand our horizons."

Atwood, 77, has always exemplified her father's work ethic. In retirement she travels, teaches friends card games, serves on the senior center's advisory board and is president of The Better Part, a television show produced at the center.

"Do more than just stay home and watch television. Get out and accomplish something or do something interesting," Atwood advised.

After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in agronomy, Redenbacher and his new bride Corinne started their family on a small farm in W. Lafayette, Ind. While Orville worked as a biology teacher, Corinne stayed home and took care of their three daughters--Billie, Gail and Sue.

Following his time as a teacher, Orville became the Vigo County Farm Bureau's extension agent in Terre Haute, Ind. As county agent, he oversaw the county's agriculture and farming and tried to ensure both the crops and animals were as healthy and prosperous as they could be.

"He was also the first county agent to go out and interview cows," said Atwood, who was about 8 years old at the time. "There is a picture of him sitting on a fence holding a microphone out to a Jersey cow."

Redenbacher's unique yet thorough job as a county agent helped him be promoted to manage 29 sites for the Princeton Farms corporation in Princeton, Ind. While the Redenbacher family did not live on a farm, the girls were active members in the 4-H Club. Due to 4-H rules at the time, girls were not allowed to show pigs and calves, but that didn't stop the Redenbacher daughters. With the help and encouragement of their father, they joined the boys division.

"We raised chickens and had the eggs and had pigs and raised 4-H calves," Atwood said. "It was the 4-H calves that produced the money for us to go to college."

Nudging his daughters into 4-H wasn't the only thing Orville did to help educate his daughters.

"He was a go-getter and wanted us to do things," Atwood said.

During the summer before her sophomore year at Purdue, Atwood and her younger sister, Gail, who was about to start college, were sent to the University of California.

"He said, 'Now, you will sign up for one or two subjects, but I want you to do something more than just study, I want you to sign up for some extracurricular things,' " she recalled.

So the Redenbacher daughters signed up for deep sea fishing. The class took place off the coast of Catalina Island, and for the first time, Atwood learned to hook a fishing line with a live sardine. While she admits she was and still is somewhat of a squeamish sort, she did enjoy learning how to fish.

Two years later, in 1951, a variety of important events took place in the Redenbacher family. Not only did Atwood graduate from Purdue with a degree in institutional food management and marry her first husband, but Redenbacher fulfilled a childhood dream and bought a popcorn seed company.

"He always liked popcorn," Atwood said. "He was the youngest of four children, and one of the things that they grew in their garden was popping corn. He used to pop it and put it in containers and walk his wagon into the town and sell it."

Throughout his undergraduate days at Purdue and during his time at Princeton farms, he also conducted a variety of popcorn breeding techniques. But it wasn't until he was 44, when he and his friend, Charlie Bowman, bought Chester Hybrids in Valparaiso, Ind., that he was truly able to experiment and create the perfect popcorn.

"It's the moisture content that is really, really important in popcorn to make it bigger and fluffier," Atwood said.

After testing more than 40,000 varieties, Redenbacher found an exact moisture level of 13.25 percent per kernel created the perfect pop. Thus in 1971, "Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping Corn" was born.

While the moisture level and name have stuck, the company has changed hands throughout the years. Today, it is owned by ConAgra Foods.

"The name is copyrighted, so it will always be Orville Redenbacher's," Atwood said.

In addition, as part of the 40th anniversary of the popcorn, ConAgra has been replaying commercials that feature Redenbacher himself.

"I don't watch television," Atwood said, "But I've had people come up and say, 'I saw your father last night.' "

Popcorn and agriculture weren't Redenbacher's only passions. Like Atwood, who has traveled to places such as Australia, New Zealand and Kenya with the Cupertino Senior Center, Redenbacher loved to travel, particularly with the People-to-People organization.

"All my life, I wanted to travel and see the world," Redenbacher wrote in a letter dated March 29, 1988, to Atwood's eldest son, Kevin Fish. "I had been interested in the program of People-to-People ever since it was started and President Eisenhower thought it was one of the best peace projects that he ever worked with."

By the year of the letter, Redenbacher and his wife Corinne had visited 96 countries, including Russia, Mexico, Africa and South America. On his trips he not only spoke about agriculture but gained useful knowledge from the different people he met along the way.

"If we could get people to communicate, we would not have nearly as many world problems," Redenbacher's letter concluded.

Although Redenbacher died more than 10 years ago of a heart attack, Atwood wants the world to remember her father as more than just the king of popcorn.

"If you want to do something, get out and do it," Atwood said, sharing some of her father's best advice.