David Howard Murdock (born April 11, 1923) is an American billionaire businessman, plant-based diet advocate and philanthropist.

Due to a chance encounter with a good samaritan, he obtained a $1,200 loan to buy a closing diner, flipping it for a $700 profit ten months later.

He used the company's profits to pay back the loans he secured to make the acquisition before terminating 2,000 positions and selling the company-owned homes.

[10] In 1985 Murdock took over the nearly bankrupt Hawaiian firm Castle & Cooke, which owned pineapple and banana producer Dole Food Company.

He developed Castle & Cooke's real estate portfolio into residential and commercial properties and turned Dole into the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables.

The site of the research center in the middle of Kannapolis was formerly occupied by Plant #1 of Cannon Mills (which became Pillowtex after a series of mergers and acquisitions).

[1] He established the Dole Nutrition Institute to advocate the benefits of a plant-based diet to promote health and prevent disease.

[19] His remaining son Justin is CEO and executive chairman of NovaRx and is senior vice president of investments for Castle & Cooke.

[4][21] He drinks smoothies two or three times a day with as many as twenty fruits and vegetables, including pulverized banana and orange peels.

[4] He eats fish, seafood, egg whites, legumes and nuts whilst avoiding dairy, poultry and red meat.