Alan Alvarez — who was so talented at selling and talking about mangoes that he was dubbed “Mango King” — has died.
Alvarez was a McAllen, Texas-based sales specialist for RCF Distributors and El Grupo Crespo since about 2012, according to a news release and a March 2 article in the Under the Mango Tree blog by Nissa Pierson, Crespo Organic brand developer.
Alvarez died Jan. 30 and is survived by his wife and three children. He is treasured by colleagues and clients who were like family and friends, Pierson wrote.
Alan Alvarez Jr. has been working with his father in the family business for the past four years.
“He was incredibly straightforward in his approach to making sure things were done right and people responded well to him. Problems were always solved, and people always felt good,” Alvarez Jr. said in the blog post.
Scott Chodnoff, key account and commodity manager for Carbamericas Inc., was a longtime client and friend of Alvarez’s, who talked on the phone with him daily for eight years.
Chodnoff said Alvarez was fair and a good problem-solver. They had a lot in common in their personal lives as well, including children, love of traveling and coaching baseball.
When Chodnoff’s son was supposed to play in a big baseball tournament, Alvarez mailed him a Rawlings Heart of the Hide baseball glove, the best glove he’s ever owned.
“That’s just the kind of guy Alan was. He did things for people, not because he had to but because he wanted to,” Chodnoff said in the blog post.
“He was a very caring, giving soul. I miss talking to him on the phone every day like you wouldn’t believe, but he has left an impression on me that will last a lifetime.”
The Crespo family’s commitment to their customers, consumers and the hundreds of people that rely on the growing, packing, shipping, selling and marketing systems that stretch from the southern regions of Mexico across the U.S. to Canada remains unwavering amid the collective grief those who knew Alvarez carry, Pierson said in her blog article.
“We mourn and move and grow all in the same breath, as we must,” she said.
