23 Facts About Rudolph Hass

Rudolph Gustav Hass was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 5,1892, to Henry C Hass and Alma F Hass.

Rudolph Hass met Elizabeth Schuette in 1918 at a 4th of July church picnic.

Rudolph Hass was involved in a mission working with children on weekends and asked Elizabeth if she could play the piano for his ministry at the mission.

Rudolph Hass got a job as a door-to-door salesman in 1923, first selling "Real Silk Hose", then selling Maytag washing machines.

In 1925 Rudolph Hass got a job with the Pasadena Post Office making 25 cents per hour.

That was before mail truck routes, so Rudolph Hass carried the heavy mail sack every day on his route for ten years until he was given a car route due to his failing heart.

Rudolph Hass hired a professional grafter named Mr Caulkins, who advised Mr Rudolph Hass to buy avocado seeds from a nursery owned by Mr Rideout and grow his own seedlings and then have them grafted to the Fuerte variety.

Rudolph Hass planted the rest of the grove on 12-foot centers with three seeds in each hole.

Mr Rudolph Hass was not a botanist like Luther Burbank who purposely cross pollinated plants to produce over 800 better varieties.

The seed that produced the Rudolph Hass avocado had already been cross pollinated by nature before Rideout sold it, along with a hundred other seeds, to Rudolph Hass.

Rudolph Hass had his wife Elizabeth take his picture kneeling by the seedling and showing one of the tiny avocados hanging over his hand.

Rudolph Hass agreed to sell them a bag of 4 or 5 avocados for $1.

Rudolph Hass sold all he brought to work and took orders for more.

The Rudolph Hass family began to work harvesting and selling avocados from a roadside stand by the grove at 430 West Road in La Habra, California.

Rudolph Hass contacted the 'Model Grocery Store' on Colorado St in Pasadena and found it to be a ready market.

Rudolph Hass left them a few sample avocados and they agreed to sell the fruit and did so for many years.

Rudolph Hass signed an agreement with Harold Brokaw, a Whittier nurseryman, to grow and sell the Rudolph Hass Avocados.

However, Rudolph Hass was the first person to have a producing grove of Hass Avocados, though it was a very small grove.

Rudolph Hass expanded to Fallbrook, planting an 80-acre orchard in 1948 which bore its first crop in 1952, just as his 17-year patent expired.

One month after the patent expired in August 1952, at the age of 60, Rudolph Hass suffered a heart attack on September 24,1952.

Rudolph Hass died of heart failure in the Fallbrook Hospital a month later on October 24,1952.

Rudolph Hass was buried on his wife's 53rd birthday, October 28,1952.

Rudolph Hass lived in California the rest of her life on the pension from her husband's mailman job.