Entrepreneur. Harry Holmes, along with his older brother David, were the creators of the very successful enterprise of "Harry & David," a gourmet gifts company, featuring their delicious pears. The brothers complemented each other, as Harry was the serious businessman while David was the creative marketing partner. David created the "Fruit of the Month Club" in the 1930s and the "Tower of Treats" in 1947. Their business was named Medford's Bear Creek Corporation. Born Harry Rosenberg, his father, Samuel Rosenberg, Seattle hotelier, had purchased 240 acres of prime farmland in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon in 1910, producing high-quality fruit, especially pears. Harry and his brother attended Cornell University in New York, studying agricultural science, before returning to the family's farm with their educated green-thumbs. With their father's death, the brothers inherited the orchard in 1916. During the 1920s, they successfully marketed Comice pears as a luxury item to East Coast and European buyers. Later, they marketed their trademark Royal Riviera pears. With the Great Depression and a financial dive in the business, David arrived at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City with 15 boxes of the pears. Eventually, the pears were sent to the nation's top business tycoons with handwritten letters encouraging them to sample the fruit, then suggesting their company send a box as a gift to friends, colleagues, and clients. This was a success and allowed their company to purchase small parcels of land from struggling orchardists. With the rise of anti-Semitic persecution by the Nazi Party in Germany, the brothers changed their surname from Rosenberg to Holmes, their stepfather's surname, in the 1930s in order to sell their fruit baskets in Germany. In 1934, the company successfully started a specialty-item mail-order catalog business, which is credited as being one of the nation's first. Ironically, because of the labor shortage during World War II, Nazi prisoners-of-war, which were held at the United States Army's nearby Camp White, harvested the "Harry & David" pear crop. During the postwar years, their new packing complex was built adjacent to the railroad tracks, a distribution complex was opened in Ohio, and to handle their increased mail order business, a new post office was opened. Their small family business had become an internationally-respected multi-million-dollar business, having hundreds of employees. He and his wife were very active in volunteer civic work. While on a business trip to California, David was killed in an automobile accident in 1950. Harry's death was eight years later. His brother's part of the business was inherited by his nephew David Holmes, Jr, who became the company's president, and later, the position was given to Harry's son. After his and his brother's death, the company's name was changed to Bear Creek Corporation in 1972, remaining a private, family-owned enterprise until it became a public company in 1976. Over the years, the company has acquired other companies such as Jackson and Perkins's gardening, a Florida-based citrus fruit company, an English muffin company, and in the 21st century after reorganizing the company, a wine distributing company.