Dr. Frieda Rapoport Caplan, a popular business legend of Los Alamitos, has passed away at the age of 96.
She had been active in the business since its founding almost fifty years ago.
Her daughter, Jackie Caplan Wiggins, announced the news in a statement Jan. 18. “It is with a very heavy heart that we share that our Mom, Frieda Rapoport Caplan, passed away early this morning at her home. She was 96.”
According to interviews with CBS News, Caplan created “Frieda’s Specialty Produce” in the early 1960’s by renaming a remote New Zealand fruit the “Kiwi.” She told CBS she was okay with being called the “Kiwi Queen,” a term of endearment given to Caplan.
Called a “marketing genius” by the L.A. Times, throughout her lifetime, Caplan’s skills gained for her industry and global notoriety. By her own estimate, she introduced more than 200 exotic fruits and vegetables to the American market. The company operates from its headquarters in Los Alamitos.
In her statement, Wiggins said “as you know, she fell and broke her leg in June and had been recuperating at home since then. It was only in the last few weeks that she started declining rapidly. She was such a remarkable woman and was still very mentally sharp until the very end. As you can imagine, she continued to ask us daily ‘what good things happened at Frieda’s today’ since she couldn’t go to the office any longer.”
Tributes to her legacy and influence, both in the produce industry and the business world at large, were shared throughout the weekend. The Los Angeles Times remembered Caplan as “the marketing genius who galvanized the California farm industry and almost singlehandedly created fruit and vegetable trends.”
CBS’s Sunday Morning news magazine aired a segment on Frieda, filmed in November, on Jan. 19 in her honor. Over the years, Caplan had made hundreds of television appearances.
Caplan had also received many honors for her pioneering business, the most recent of which was the “Woman’s Catalyst Award” during the Woman’s Fresh Perspectives Summit Conference, held in Anaheim in October.
