George Minor, who died Sept. 12 at age 88, helped develop the hard red winter wheat that could withstand Colorado’s severe growing conditions well enough to satisfy local millers who previously imported their flour from Kansas.
“George didn’t like that the bakeries here were using out- of-state wheat,” said longtime friend and associate Darrell Hanavan, executive director of the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee.
“What he did was help begin the wheat-breeding program at Colorado State University to improve the quality of the wheat here,” Hanavan said. “More than anyone, he transformed Colorado from being a producer of poor-quality, low-protein wheat to a producer of high- quality wheat. He was a piece of history, in terms of wheat and flour.”
Minor, who grew up in Missouri, discovered his talent as a baker during his assignment as a cook’s helperafter enlisting in the Navy. Officers reassigned him to teach baking to other recruits. After his discharge, Minor became a cereal chemist, specializing in developing flour mixtures for commercial bakeries.
Forty-nine years ago, he moved to Colorado and worked for the state’s largest flour mill, now owned by ConAgra’s Commerce City plant. Minor taught cereal chemistry at agricultural schools in Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, but the Colorado State Fair served as the best stage for his natural showmanship. Until 1999, Hungarian Flour, ConAgra and other companies hired Minor to demonstrate how to use their products in the fair’s agricultural hall.
With a backdrop of family and friends chopping ingredients, whisking pans and trays from the ovens and washing dishes, Minor became a floury whirlwind. His formidable size – his baker’s whites strained over nearly 300 pounds, and his baker’s toque made him seem even taller than 6 feet 4cq – held audiences rapt. The free samples didn’t hurt, either.
Minor made jalapeño twists – croissant dough layered with cheese and jalapeños – that Ted Collins, Minor’s friend and perennial volunteer, hoarded.
Minor made quick biscuits, cream puffs, cinnamon rolls, croissants, eclairs and cobblers. He made pie crusts so tender that samples barely maintained their shape upon being distributed to long lines of eager tasters. (Minor’s secret: Never overknead the dough.)
Each day of the fair, Minor produced 160 kinds of baked goods, working from morning to suppertime. Then he knocked off and returned to the motel for a happy hour fueled by beer and Collins’ stash of jalapeño twists.
Survivors include daughters Shirley Larson of New Springfield, Ohio; Kay Minor of Thornton; Judy Kinnison of Panama City, Fla.; Lynn Layton of Commerce City; and Janice Rodgers of Springfield; sons Robert Minor of Fort Collins; Ronald Minor of Vancouver, Wash.; and Don Minor of Westminster; sisters Dorothy Jennings of Windsor, Mo.cq; and Alice Smith of Bartlesville, Okla.; 24cq grandchildren; 52 great- grandchildren; and sevencq great-great-grandchildren. One granddaughter preceded him in death.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
