Samuel Zemurray (1878?-November 30, 1961) was a United States businessman, a trader in bananas who was head of the United Fruit Company.

Born in Bessarabia in Russia, he came to America at the age of fourteen. "Sam the Banana Man" entered the trade in Mobile, Alabama in 1895 at the age of eighteen and was wildly successful. By age twenty-one he had banked $100,000. He bought a steamship and went to Honduras. In 1910, he bought 5,000 acres (20 km²) there along the Cuyamel River . He added more land and found himself heavily in debt.

Honduras and Nicaragua at the time were working to reschedule their debts. United States Secretary of State Philander C. Knox was involved in the negotiations, which would have agents of bankers J.P. Morgan and Company sitting in the countries' customs offices to collect the taxes needed to repay the debt. Zemurray feared that he would be taxed out of business and appealed to Knox for help. Knox spurned him so he went to New Orleans, where deposed Honduran president Manuel Bonilla was living.

Zemurray smuggled Bonilla back to Honduras and a revolution was fought that led to Bonilla's return to power. Bonilla granted Zemurray concessions and low taxes that saved his business.

In 1930, Zemurray sold his company, Cuyamel Fruit, to the United Fruit Company of Boston, Massachusetts for $31.5 million in stock and retired. But the company suffered because of mismanagement and the Great Depression. The stock plunged 90% from when he sold, so Zemurray returned to the business in 1932 by voting out the board of directors. Zemurray reorganized the company, decentralizing decision making and made the company profitable once more.

Zemurray lived in New Orleans, Louisiana. Zemurray and his family made considerable donations to Tulane University. His former mansion on Saint Charles Avenue is now the residence of Tulane's president. Samuel Zemurray died in New Orleans.

References

• The Associated Press. "Samuel Zemurray, 84, Is Dead; Headed United Fruit Company." The New York Times. December 2, 1961.
• Thomas P. McCann. On the Inside. Beverly, Massachusetts: Quinlan Press, 1987.