* Anthony T. Rossi; Founder of Tropicana Products

Anthony T. Rossi, 92, a pioneer in the marketing of citrus and founder of Tropicana Products Inc. Rossi, born in Messina, Sicily, immigrated to the United States in 1921. The company he founded in 1947 grew into Tropicana Products, one of the world’s largest producers of citrus beverages. Before that, he worked as a mechanic’s helper and a cabdriver, and operated a Long Island, N.Y., grocery store during the 1930s. He bought a cafeteria in Bradenton, Fla., but left the restaurant business and began to buy oranges and grapefruit from growers in the area. He started Fruit Industries Inc., which soon was supplying the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City with 1,000 gallons of sliced citrus fruit a week. He was the first to operate a fleet of refrigerated trucks, which meant that perishable citrus could be shipped across the country. He also developed a freezing process for undiluted orange juice that helped Tropicana and other companies compete with the producers of frozen concentrate. Before he retired as chairman, president and chief operating officer of Tropicana in 1978, he sampled the company’s orange juice daily. In Bradenton, Fla., on Sunday.