Bob and His Red Mill

The Story of Robert Gene Moore

As you stroll down the grocery store aisle, catching a glimpse of a face on a box of cereal often begs the question, Is that face staring back at you a real person? Well, in the case of Robert Gene Moore of Bob’s Red Mill, it certainly is, and this is his story.

For more than 40 years Bob’s Red Mill has been a renowned brand of flour, cereal, beans, and an array of other grains, firmly establishing itself as a major player in the world of organic foods.

Bob

Before establishing his renowned Red Mill, Bob Moore was born in Portland Oregon, on February 15th, 1929. Growing up in San Bernardino County, Bob served in the U.S. Army for three years, participating in road and bridge construction and other humanitarian projects in the Marshall Islands and Enewetak Atoll.

Bob held various occupations throughout his life, including owning gas stations and working at J.C. Penney. It wasn't until the mid-1960s that he discovered his passion for whole-grain milling. In 1974, he pursued this passion by founding Moores' Flour Mill in Redding, California.

Taking a brief retirement in the mid-1970s to study the Bible in its original languages, Bob and his wife entrusted their business to their children while they attended Western Evangelical Seminary in Oregon.

After achieving this linguistic feat, the couple stumbled upon an old feed mill slated for demolition. Bob returned to grain milling, opening what would later become the famous Bob’s Red Mill in Milwaukee, Oregon, in 1978.

An illustration of Moore, often likened to a folksy, almost Santa-like figure adorned with a red vest or coat, graces all of the company's products, accompanied by the salutation "To Your Good Health".

This use of Moore’s image on the company’s products emerged a few years after its inception, following a friend's suggestion that Moore himself should feature on the packaging.

Before his success in milling grains, Bob pursued a typical path for young men in the 1950s, aspiring to marry and start a family, a dream realized in 1953 when he wed Charlee Lucille Coote. Together, they had three sons: Ken, Bob Jr., and David.

Bob's first business venture, Moore’s Flour Mill, was established by Bob, his wife Charlee, and two of their sons, housed in a renovated Quonset hut.

Moore's commitment to healthier eating stemmed from his father's premature death from a heart attack at age 49 and his grandmother's health-obsessed eating habits.

His experimentation with stone-ground flours began in the mid-1960s after reading "John Goffe's Mill" by George Woodbury, a book chronicling an archaeologist's journey to rebuild a flour mill and venture into business with no prior experience.

Bob’s Red Mill was going strong for the first decade of its operation until 1988 when an arsonist set Bob’s Red Mill ablaze in the middle of the night.

In the face of adversity, Bob’s Red Mill would re-open in 1989 and recover to be stronger than ever, growing to $100 million in revenue by 2010, with business expanding internationally.

Bob Moore knew that it was his employees that made his company successful so he transitioned the company of then 209 workers to an employee stock ownership plan that year, and by April 2020, the company was entirely owned by its more than 700 employees.

Moore described his plan for employee ownership and profit-sharing as rooted in his belief that "The Bible says to do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Bob Moore retired in 2018 from his duties as CEO but remained on the board until his recent death earlier this year on February 10, 2024. Bob may be gone from this world but his true American spirit lives on.

If it wasn’t for Bob milling his amber waves of grain across the purple mountain’s majesty then maybe someone, somewhere wouldn’t have been able to nourish their body with a bowl of wholesome goodness.

Thank you, Bob, you showed us what the American entrepreneurial spirit is capable of when that impulse is actualized and allowed to run wild and free, you are a true patriot and a real American hero.