<p>Pioneer of the Florida strawberry deal and former Co-owner of Wish Farms, Lester Wishnatzki, has passed away at the age of 96.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Based in Plant City, Florida, Wish Farms brought Florida strawberries to much of the country. His father, Russian immigrant, started the family business with partner Daniel Nathel in the early 1900s. They owned push carts that sold produce in the streets of New York City. He eventually moved to Florida where he started a brokering operation selling produce back to New York. His sons Lester and Joe helped build the company into a company doing over $100 million a year in business, according to Bay News 9.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><img src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacyWriterImages/wishfarms052013bann.jpg" alt="Cropped Images May 20st 2 2013" /><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Employees remember Lester Wishnatzki as a tough but fair boss. Warehouse manager Jessie Williams started working for Wishnatzki as a 14-year-old boy over 40 years ago.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"If you did that right, he would praise you for it," said Williams. "But if you did it wrong, you would hear about it for about 10 or 15 minutes."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"Very generous man. Very generous man," said Vice President Chuck Hollenkamp, who knew Wishnatzki for 28 years. "Anything you wanted from Lester he would give it to you."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Williams said Wishnatzki always cared deeply about the people around him.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"Even up to last week, he would always ask about the people there in the company how they was doing," he said. "Was everybody all right. He was very dedicated to the people he know."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Funeral services for Lester Wishnatzki will be held Wednesday at Tempe Emanuel in Lakeland.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
