By Brenda Eubanks Burnette
Victor Knight was born June 5, 1929, into a family already rooted deep in the Indian River citrus industry. Friends would later say he was “born with his feet in the grove,” and for nearly eight decades he proved it. His family worked groves and cattle near Winter Beach. Knight was the sixth of seven children raised by John M. and Burma Reed Knight. The family ranch became known as the “7K Ranch,” a nod to the seven siblings.
Knight’s days began before sunrise milking cows, with little time for school sports when groves and livestock needed attention. At just 14, he planted his first grove — an early sign of the drive that would define his life. After high school, he attended the University of Florida for two years, then served in the military during the Korean conflict before returning home to the family business. By the mid‑1950s, he had expanded into citrus harvesting, eventually taking responsibility for picking all the fruit from the family groves.
That hands-on experience convinced him that vertical integration — growing, harvesting and packing under one vision — was the best way to protect quality. In 1960, he, his father and his brother Reed developed the Riverfront Groves packinghouse along the U.S. 1 corridor. Four years later, in 1964, the business was formally incorporated as Riverfront Groves, Inc. By the early 1970s, Knight had purchased his brother’s interests and began modernizing the operation with the same determination that had driven him since childhood.
Knight was an innovator with a practical streak and helped lead the industry’s shift from the standard field box to the 10‑box bin used today. He was also among the first on Florida’s East Coast to bring in Autoline electronic sizing equipment, and when a solution couldn’t be bought, he built it. He even welded parts of the Autoline sizer himself, investing both time and resources in improvements that could benefit his packinghouse and the broader industry.
In the mid‑1980s, Knight made another lasting change by switching from ink‑stamping fruit to paper stickers so consumers could see whose fruit they were buying. He is also credited with introducing the Star Ruby grapefruit to Florida, grafting it in a greenhouse behind the horse barn and paying his daughter, Audrey, $3.25 a week to tend the young trees.
His leadership extended far beyond his own groves. From 1962 to 1985, Knight served on the Seald Sweet Growers board — ultimately as president and chairman — helping open international markets such as Japan to Florida grapefruit. He held similar roles with Florigold Growers and spent more than two decades on the Florida Citrus Packers board, including a term as president. In 1968, he was appointed to the Florida Citrus Commission, following the path set by his father, who served on the first commission in the 1930s. Knight also served on the boards of the Indian River Citrus League, HESCO, the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association and the Citrus Administrative Committee.
Through all of it, Knight remained a family man. He married Wanda in 1950, and together they raised four children — Paula, D.V., Audrey and Dan. When Audrey married Dan Richey, who did not come from a citrus background, Knight mentored him. Richey learned the business from the ground up, eventually becoming a respected industry leader and helping guide Riverfront through a period of industry‑wide change.
A major transition came in 2001, when the Knight family sold the packinghouse operation to the Scott family, who incorporated Riverfront Packing Company, LLC, marking the beginning of a new ownership era.
Knight cared deeply about the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame, serving for years on its selection committee. He died in 2007 and was inducted two years later — a fitting tribute to a man whose innovations and leadership helped drive the industry. The Riverfront operation he shaped helped define a generation of packing and marketing citrus in Indian River County. Its closure in April 2026 marked the end of an era — but not the end of the legacy he built with his hands, his vision and his unwavering belief in Florida citrus.
Brenda Eubanks Burnette is the former executive director of the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame and is currently president of the board of Vero Heritage, Inc., which operates The Heritage Center and Indian River Citrus Museum in Vero Beach, Florida.
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