Orville Clarence Redenbacher was born in Brazil, Indiana, on July 16, 1907, to William Joseph Redenbacher (1872–1939), a farmer, and Julia Magdalena Dierdorff (1874–1944). He grew up on his family’s farm where he sometimes sold popcorn from the back of his car. He graduated from Brazil High School in 1924 in the top 5% of his class. He attended Purdue University, where he joined the agriculture-oriented Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, marched tuba in the Purdue All-American Marching Band, joined the Purdue University track team, and worked at The Purdue Exponent. He graduated in 1928 with a degree in agronomy. He spent most of his life in the agriculture industry, serving as a Vigo County Farm Bureau extension agent in Terre Haute, Indiana, and at Princeton Farms in Princeton, Indiana. The New York Times described him as “the agricultural visionary who all but single-handedly revolutionized the American popcorn industry.”
The man that The New York Times described as “but for all his bumpkin appearance, the man with the signature white wavy hair and oversized bow tie was a shrewd agricultural scientist who experimented with hybrids” began his career selling fertilizer, but spent his spare time working with popcorn. In 1951, he and partner Charlie Bowman bought the George F. Chester and Son seed corn plant in Boone Grove, Indiana. Naming the company “Chester Hybrids”, they tried tens of thousands of hybrid strains of popcorn before settling on a hybrid they named “RedBow”. An advertising agency advised them to use Orville Redenbacher’s own name as the brand name They launched their popping corn in 1970. In 1976, Redenbacher sold the company to Hunt-Wesson Foods, a division of Norton Simon, Inc. In 1983, Esmark purchased Norton Simon, which in turn was acquired by Beatrice Foods in 1984. In 1985, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquired Beatrice with the goal of selling off businesses. In 1990, they sold the popcorn business and other old Hunt-Wesson businesses to agribusiness giant ConAgra.

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1973 – To Tell the Truth Orville Redenbacher Fast Forward to 11:15 for the Gourmet Pop Corn King First time on TV	The Science & History of Popcorn – The Snack that Saved the Movies	InHistory: Orville Redenbacher

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