Gerber was born on May 6, 1898 in Fremont, Michigan, the son of Daniel Frank Gerber and Dora Pauline Pratt. He was known as Daniel, while his father was known as Frank. Frank Gerber helped to establish the Fremont Canning Company in 1901 and devoted his full energy to it after an earlier family business, a tannery in Douglas, Michigan, closed in 1905.
Gerber attended St. John's Military Academy, Delafield, Wisconsin, from 1913 to 1916, then fought as a sergeant in World War I (Croix de Guerre, 1918). He spent a year at the Babson Institute of Business Administration (1919-1920).
After his discharge Gerber spent a year at the Babson Institute of Business Administration in Massachusetts. In 1920, he joined the Fremont Canning Company as a salesman, rising to first vice-president by 1928. In 1928, Gerber added prepared baby food to the company's product line, and the firm's growth thereafter was rapid; within a few years the small-town, fruit-and-vegetable canning firm was a national enterprise. The genesis of the new product came to take on an almost legendary dimension in discussions of the firm's history. According to company lore and literature, the Gerbers were late getting ready for a social function, and Mr. Gerber was complaining about how long it was taking to strain and prepare the baby's food. Mrs. Gerber pointed out that he was the one in the food industry, and if he didn't like the situation, he should do something about it. He did. During the first year, sales of prepared strained baby food exceeded $300, 000 and increased steadily thereafter. The company approached its new product line cautiously, employing scientists in company laboratories to test the nutritional content of the foods and develop new products. The idea of strained food was neither new nor particularly difficult to implement; the obstacle was customer resistance. Since many pediatricians still believed that a liquid diet was preferable during a baby's first year, the market for strained foods had never developed. The work of Gerber's nutritionists was aimed largely at convincing the medical community that the new product was safe and healthful for babies. Following market studies and testing the products with little Sally Gerber, the new line was introduced with an advertising barrage in Good Housekeeping, Children, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. The famous "Gerber Baby, " a sketch by Dorothy Hope Smith, was introduced both to reassure mothers and to provide product identification. The company also published pamphlets on topics in home economics and nutrition to win people over to the new idea of prestrained, prepared baby foods. It also worked with farmers to improve the crops that went into the baby foods. Gerber's scientific and educational efforts won quick acceptance for its products. Sales of baby food increased steadily through the Great Depression, and by 1941 Gerber's baby food sales exceeded its "adult" food sales. The name of the firm was changed to the Gerber Products Company in 1941, and in 1943 Gerber began producing baby food exclusively. As World War II ended and the baby boom began, Gerber was poised for growth. Demand for Gerber products soared, and branch plants were established in California, New York, and Ontario. In 1945, Daniel succeeded his father as president of the firm. Growth and expansion continued, and the family firm went public and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1956. Baby clothing, toys, and other products were added in the 1960's. The firm's slogan was "Babies are our business, our only business. " Like his father, Daniel Gerber was active in state and national trade associations; he also served as administrator of the Fruit and Vegetable Section of the Office of Price Administration from 1942 to 1943. While Gerber Products became a national firm with operations in several states and Canada, its headquarters remained in the small, west-central Michigan community of Fremont. Gerber was active in local service clubs and community organizations. He also served as chairman of the Old State Bank of Fremont for many years and as a director of the Detroit Edison Company, the Corn Products Company, and Laoli Mills, Inc. Daniel Gerber had an idea and developed it into a major corporation, but he remained committed to the small town where he was born in and where both he and his idea grew up. He died in Fremont on March 16, 1974.
Gerber married Dorothy Marion Scott on January 18, 1923; they had five children.
