Alfred Fromm

New York Times

Alfred Fromm, 93, Early Leader in the California Wine Industry

By LAWRENCE M. FISHER JULY 8, 1998

Alfred Fromm, a leader in the early days of the California wine industry, died at his home in San Francisco on Thursday. He was 93.

Mr. Fromm was born in Kitzingen, Bavaria, the fourth generation of a family of wine makers at Bingen on the Rhine. Fleeing from the Nazis, in 1936 he came to the United States, where he founded Fromm & Sichel Inc. with Franz W. Sichel, another expatriate scion of an old German wine-making clan. Fromm & Sichel distributed the Christian Brothers wine and brandy worldwide and in the 1950's took over the Paul Masson vineyards, a pioneering California wine maker in Saratoga.

Mr. Fromm, who was also known as a philanthropist, founded the Wine Museum of San Francisco and co-founded the San Francisco Jewish Community Museum. In 1976, with his wife, Hanna, he founded and financed the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning, a program of courses at the University of San Francisco taught by emeritus professors for retired people over the age of 50. For this work, the Fromms were awarded honorary doctorates of public service in 1979, the same year they established a sister program, the Fromm Institute at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Though he built his fortune on jug wines such as California chablis, and Paul Masson's slightly sweet champagne, Mr. Fromm was among the first to predict that California wines would come to rival those of France in both quantity and quality. In the late 1950's, he predicted the emergence, within five years, of a dozen or more nationally distributed wines with consistency and brand recognition to equal any consumer product.

Mr. Fromm was a director of the San Francisco Opera Association, trustee of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, governor of the Jewish National Fund and a member of the board of the Culinary Institute of America. He was appointed a regent at St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., where he was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters. He established scholarships at Brandeis University and Hastings College of Law and served on the advisory board of the California State University of San Francisco.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Fromm is survived by two children, David Fromm of Detroit, who is chief of surgery at Wayne State University, and Caroline Fromm-Lurie of Ross, Calif., a psychotherapist and president of the Friends of the Fromm Institute; five grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.