Ben Zaricor

1965	2005

 

Email me at bzaricor@goodearth.com

Was a member of Tau Delta Tau fraternity while at Overton, Tommy Canada was one of my best friends who sponsored me for the fraternity. Scott McDaniel was also one of my closest friends at Overton when I graduated. I remember going to gigs with Tony Rossini when he was cutting his first record with SUN RECORDS. After graduating from Overton High School in May 1965 my family moved to St. Louis , Missouri in June 65.

My plans for college were changed as I was intending to go to the University of Tenn. or Memphis State but I found myself in St. Louis with no friends and no financial means to attend any university. However just as the Vietnam War was escalating that summer of 65 I landed a job as a stack attendant in the library of Washington University in St. Louis and was given the opportunity to attend university night school at a subsidized rate being an employee of the university which I did for 2 years before being accepted into the day school of the university in Autumn of 68. Because I fell behind one year going to night school and plus a suspension for anti-war activities I received my AB in Spring of 72 at WU. I was elected student Union president 69/70 - suspended for two years one month before my graduation in Spring of 1970. During that two years I continued my education in the Sociology department in an unofficial P.h.D. program which I completed in 72 culminating in a radical history of WU. Excerpts published in Student Life in 1971/72. It has since been published by WU in (circa) 1995 and is in the rare book section of Olin Library.

In December 1971 I married Louise Ann Veninga MA 72 also a student at WU from Dallas , Texas .  We moved to Santa Cruz , Ca. in Spring of 72 with the idea to start our business in the natural food business and to go to China to develop our business. Since Spring of 72 we have resided in Santa Cruz , Ca. and we have three children: Tanya 21, Carl 19 and Karen 15.

Co-founder with my wife of Fmali Herb Inc., importer, processor and distributor of botanical, spices and teas from all over the world including California citrus peel. A major supplier to the herb tea industry before developing the Good Earth tea Company. Authored two books on herbs, The Ginseng Book (1973) and Goldenseal Etc., (1976.) Fmali was invited in 1975 to do business with China , the first American Herb company since 1949 to be asked by the Chinese government. Co-founder of the American Herb Trade Association now called the American Herbal Products Association. 

Co-founder, with Louise, and CEO of the national brand Good Earth Teas of Santa Cruz, Ca. and President of the Good Earth Corporation of Santa Cruz , Ca. which licenses restaurant operations, as well as the trade mark for beverages and food products sold in super markets nation wide.

Interest: travel, history and collecting historical and interesting flags among other things.