Milton Teague, Sunkist Growers Chief, Dies at 83

Milton McKevett Teague, who helped lead Sunkist Growers Inc. in the postwar years of that huge citrus growers’ cooperative, is dead.

The former president of the state Chamber of Commerce, the Agricultural Council of California and retired board chairman of Limoneira Co., one of the world’s largest lemon ranches, was 83 when he died in Santa Paula on Thursday.

Teague was a son of Charles Collins Teague, the pioneer agriculturist who served on the Sunkist board from 1911 to 1920, when the then-California Fruit Growers Exchange was in its infancy. Founded in 1893, the cooperative was started to maintain stable markets for the 6,000 growers it now represents in California and Arizona.

The younger Teague served on the board from 1950 to 1971 and was board chairman from 1965 to 1971.

A graduate of Stanford University who in 1959 was named to head the Stanford Alumni Assn., Milton Teague also was a former director of Security Pacific National Bank and the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Survivors include his wife, Alfrida, three daughters, five grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to a favorite charity.