He was educated at University College School and obtained his bachelor's degree at the University of Sussex in 1978. Gilroy was born on 16 February 1956 in the East End of London to a Guyanese mother, novelist Beryl Gilroy, and an English father, Patrick, who was a scientist. Gilroy is the 2019 winner of the €660,000 Holberg Prize, for 'his outstanding contributions to a number of academic fields, including cultural studies, critical race studies, sociology, history, anthropology and African-American studies'. Paul Gilroy FRSL FBA (born 16 February 1956) is an English sociologist and cultural studies scholar who is the founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Race and Racism at University College London (UCL). There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack (1987).In addition, she said, “The Christopher family also provides scholarships for dozens of GUSD seniors each year that help them follow their dreams following high school graduation. He and his wife provided significant donations to Gilroy High School for a number of purposes, and provided matching funding to the district for the installation of security systems at the middle and high school campuses. School superintendent Flores ticked off his many contributions: He helped secure the land for the construction of the Christopher High School campus and funded the construction of the school’s Sports Complex, she said. Over the decades, Christopher’s name became synonymous not just with garlic but also with local philanthropy. The festival became a huge three-day affair, drawing garlic lovers from around the world. So volunteers recycled stubs, while others raced from San Jose to Monterey to buy everything from calamari to French bread. They didn’t even have enough tickets for the two-day event.

“We said, ‘Holy cow!’ ” Christopher recalled in a 2012 Mercury News interview. They vastly underestimated the appeal. Some 15,000 people descended on the first Gilroy Garlic Festival. They figured about 5,000 people from the surrounding communities would show up to taste garlic-infused dishes. In 1979, well into the legacy, a handful of volunteers - including Rudy Melone, Val Filice and Christopher - decided to hold a modest festival celebrating garlic to raise money for charity. Christopher battled cheap imported garlic from China for years and saw the cost of farmland skyrocket. The journey wasn’t without its challenges. So began his future with the stinking rose. Christopher Ranch grew to be the nation’s largest garlic company and remains the largest private employer in Gilroy. “Fortunately, demand that season exceeded supply, so a couple of the buyers called.” “To sell that first crop, young Don (about 24 years old) had to fly to the major Midwest and Eastern produce markets and leave his card with skeptical buyers. “When he and another young local farmer partnered to try to grow just 10 acres of garlic, they were unwelcome to that market, which was jealously guarded by a few sellers,” son Rob said. Those sales were not completed until the 1970s, said son Rob Christopher, the company’s general counsel, allowing Don’s parents and uncles to live out their lives on the “Christopher Brothers” ranch on Monterey Road. The orchard grew to hundreds of acres over the decades, and family members started selling their tree-laden land in the late 1960s to IBM for its facility. His grandfather, Ole Christopher, immigrated from Denmark and bought 15 acres in South San Jose, planting his first trees in 1896, according to Mercury News archives. “His love for his employees, for his community, and for his family was evident every single day, and he will be remembered for his steadfast commitment to making Gilroy a better place.”ĭebbie Flores, superintendent of the Gilroy Unified School District, one of the beneficiaries of his largesse, said: “It is hard to imagine the Gilroy community without his presence.”Ĭhristopher was born into a prune-farming family in San Jose in 1934. “There is no doubt that his legacy will endure through future generations, as he made the Garlic Capital of the World something truly special and made a difference in countless lives through his philanthropy,” Christopher Ranch executive vice president and grandson Ken Christopher said in a statement. Third-generation farmer and first-generation garlic farmer Don Christopher is shown in 1978 at his Christopher Ranch in Gilroy. The 88-year-old was surrounded by family when he died Monday, the company announced Wednesday. Don Christopher, the legendary Gilroy farmer who turned Christopher Ranch into the nation’s largest garlic processor and helped put the Garlic Capital of the World on the map, has died.

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