14 When he wasn’t working, he invested some of his creative energies in cultivating exotic flowers. Inspired by his love for them resulting from his travels to Hawaii, he had a greenhouse built at his home in Hastings, and grew a variety of beautiful flowers. Some might suggest that Eugene Roberts wasn’t really an inventor. Even he was known to say that he merely took other people’s ideas, improved upon the engineering, and then reintroduced them to the industry. However, all inventors take what already exists and think about it in new ways. They examine a process and reason that there must be a better, more economical, way. Eugene claimed credit for nearly 200 inventions and more than 95 patents, going back to the sugar discharger. Along the way, he cultivated friendships throughout the world. As a writer in the Cuba Review magazine noted in an August 24, 1926 article, “Those who know Roberts personally find him congenial, unselfish and likable ─ a man one is proud to have as a friend, not only because of his remarkable ability, but because of his personality.” After serving the sugar industry for 56 years, Eugene Roberts died peacefully in his sleep at home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, on September 14, 1950. Eugene was outlived by his wife Olga, their three sons, two daughters and nine grandchildren. Eugene’s legacy in the sugar industry was continued by his son Harold, a Director on the Western States Board, who lived in Hastings and was associated with the Western States’ New York office. His son Grant worked at the Company's plant in Hamilton, Ohio, while his son, Maurice, worked as a building contractor in Hamilton. Eugene’s grandson (Maurice’s son), Farrell Roberts later became a circuit court judge in Michigan and also served on the Board of Directors. Eugene's company continues to be independent despite the global trend toward consolidation, and it continues to embody the values he established. The influence of Mr. Roberts weaves throughout Western States, but nowhere is it more evident than in the company’s boardroom, where his granddaughter, Nancy Rowell Lewit, has devoted more than two decades of service as a Director. Those familiar with Mrs. Lewit’s many contributions to the Company assures that the determination and personal conviction of that 16-year-old Lehi boy continues to live on, and will be felt for decades to come. CHAPTER 1