Charles E. Magoon (1928-2006) was director of research at the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association (UFFVA), a national organization that represented member growers, shippers, packers, processors, marketers and distributors of fresh produce in the United States. Magoon took a personal interest in the history of the trade and spent decades of research at the National Archives and Library of Congress. He also obtained images on produce markets and marketing from state and local archives, historical societies, railroad company records, and members of the trade.

Magoon was born on October 2, 1928 in Findlay, Ohio. He earned his bachelors degree in Food Distribution from the School of Business and Public Service at Michigan State University in 1954. For eighteen years, from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s, he worked as the Director of Research, United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association.

The UFFVA was established in 1937 as a merger of the Western Fruit Jobbers Association and the American Fruit and Vegetable Shippers Association. Magoon was responsible for the UFFVA’s publications and information. He was on hand during the Association’s move from Washington, D.C., to 727 N. Washington St., Alexandria, Virginia in the early 1980s. He met his future wife Irene Hedrick (dates private) at the time, when she worked for Fernstrom Moving System, the nationwide moving company that handled the job for the UFFVA.

In 1997, Magoon published a book about the American produce business industry titled, "The Way It Was: The Produce Industry In The Early Years, 1890 to 1930: An Illustrated History." Alongside the descriptive narrative there are 400 images in the book, some of which are from his collection.

Magoon died on August 1, 2006 in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.