Oppenheimer; Cattleman and Land Manager
Harold L. Oppenheimer, who turned a small real estate and loan operation into one of the biggest cattle investment and land management firms in the nation, died of cancer Sunday at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla.
He had traveled to California from Kansas City to accompany his wife, Daphne, who was receiving treatment at the clinic.
Oppenheimer Industries, based in Missouri, manages about 80,000 head of cattle and 800,000 acres of land for 400 clients in the United States and several other countries.
Oppenheimer, 66, was a graduate of Harvard, where he majored in anthropology. In 1941 he enlisted in the Marine Corps and wound up commanding a machine-gun platoon, a company of Samoan Marines and a battalion on Okinawa and Guam.
At 23, Oppenheimer was the youngest battalion commander in the Marine Corps, eventually retiring as a brigadier general.
After World War II he returned to his family’s small loan and real estate operations, and after additional military service in the Korean War turned Oppenheimer Industries into a giant agricultural and sales firm.
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