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This past Sunday, the Los Alamitos Museum inducted two new members into its local Hall of Fame as local business woman, Frieda Caplan and legendary OC high school football coach John Barnes were recognized for their outstanding contributions to their fields and recognized as two of Los Alamitos’ finest.
Frieda Caplan
Frieda Rapoport Caplan, a native of Los Angeles and a UCLA graduate, is recognized as one of the nation’s most successful female entrepreneurs. She started a small produce specialty company in 1962.
Her first marketing success was introducing the California brown mushroom. In conjunction with this, Frieda needed an entrance sign for her burgeoning enterprise. Her decorator advised her that the only color available to him at the moment was purple. So purple it was and is today the signature color for Frieda’s Finest/Produce Specialties, Inc. Frieda became known worldwide for her marketing abilities when a retailer asked her if she had ever heard of the Chinese Gooseberry.
She did not know of the gooseberry but she was going to avidly investigate it for her specialty market. She found the gooseberry in New Zealand several months later. A New Zealand grocer had begun to identify the gooseberry as a Kiwi fruit because of its shaggy appearance resembling the Kiwi bird, native to New Zealand.
By the early 1970’s, the New Zealand Kiwifruit was catching on worldwide with 700 new California Kiwifruit growers. Frieda’s today has developed The Purple Kiwi Cookbook with many recipes containing exotic fruit and vegetables.
Frieda Caplan is considered by many as a pioneer in the male-dominated produce industry receiving a great number of awards and honors for her achievements, too numerous to mention. One achievement is noted that in the January 1, 1990 issue of The Los Angeles Times, Frieda’s was designated as one of twelve Southern California businesses who shaped the course of American business. Located in Los Alamitos, her name was up there with Michael Eisner, the CEO of Walt Disney.
John Barnes
Most everyone in the Los Alamitos community knows of John Barnes, the “winningest” coach in Orange County high school history, as well as in all of Southern California.
This accolade was afforded to John Barnes while being a coach, teacher and mentor to Los Alamitos High School and to the Griffins. His 295 career wins are the most of any coach in Orange County history.
Reaching beyond that, John Barnes ranks fourth in California State History for all-time wins, his treasured accomplishment.
From 1991 to 1994, the Los Alamitos Griffins amassed a 47-game winning streak playing in one of the toughest football division in the country. He has been honored with numerous coach of the year awards such as West Region Coach, All-American Football Foundation Coach, California State Coach and Orange County Coach, to name a few.
The Press Telegram named him their Dream Team Coach of the year in 1991, 1993 and 2002, not forgetting that once upon a time, he was a Press Telegram delivery boy. For five years, he was named The National Football Foundation Orange County Chapter Coach. In 1979, he took over the head coaching assignment at Los Alamitos High School, a role that he has maintained ever since for a total of thirty-three years.
