November 24, 2008
Barber Foods founder dies
By The Mainebiz News Staff
Augustus "Gus" Barber, founder of Barber Foods in Portland, died on Friday at the age of 87.
Barber, the son of Armenian immigrants who fled Ottoman rule during the Armenian genocide in the early 1900s, founded Barber Foods in 1955, according to the Portland Press Herald. An Army veteran and former welder, Barber worked for eight years as a meat cutter before founding Barber Beef and Poultry. Barber grew the company to one of the country's largest producers of frozen foods. Barber Foods now employees roughly 800 people in Portland, nearly half of whom are immigrants.
Barber retired as chairman of the company's board of directors in 2002.
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