Bob Bull passing

Bill Coon passes on news that Bob Bull has passed away. From our archives:

Bull, a former professor at the University of Delaware in the area of food distribution, played a major role in the reorganization of the Produce Packaging Association in 1958. He served on the association's board of directors from 1957-59 and was instrumental in fostering the organization's ties with the University of Delaware. Bull had also operated Food Business Associates, Temple, Maine, consultants to management in food marketing, beginning in 1959.

Here is a reference to Bull in a feature that Paul Campbell did about Bob Carey in 1996:

As destiny would have it, (Carey) answered a routine letter from the University of Delaware Department of Agriculture Economics. He found that he could be paid $2,000 a year and free tuition to earn his master's degree. In return, he was to help professor Robert Bull on marketing projects. Bull happened to be on the board of directors of the PPA at the time.
``Bob Bull was my mentor. I did a lot of work with him on consumer shopping pattern studies and also worked with the American Mushroom Association,'' Carey said. ``My master's thesis was on mushroom marketing.''

Accepting the challenge
After this two-year stint, Carey had accepted a position as extension marketing specialist to help local cantaloupe growers market their product. But in June 1958, he was called into the office of the dean of the School of Agriculture, who had been asked by the PPA board to recommend someone to be executive secretary.

TK: Bob Bull helped hand pick Bob Carey to take over the PPA at a time when the fledgling association was struggling, Under Carey's leadership, the PPA (later renamed the Produce Marketing Association) scaled the mountain to become one of the largest associations of its kind. Bob Bull played an important role in the evolution of PMA and will be missed by his friends and former colleagues.