Nell Newman, president of Newman’s Own Organics and daughter of actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

Nell Newman’s eyes are clear blue and her commitment to excellence strong.

Neither is a surprise considering she is the daughter of Academy Award-winning actors Joanne Woodward and the late Paul Newman and is the president and founder of Newman’s Own Organics.

On the heels of her father’s success with his Newman’s Own products, which profit his charitable foundation, 16 years ago she convinced her “Pop” to help her launch another generation of products — organic ones.

Last week, Newman made a stop in Attleboro on a publicity tour putting the spotlight on the Newman’s Own Organic Coffee’s partnership with McDonald’s and Green Mountain Coffee of Vermont. She got behind the counter at Lou Provenzano’s Washington Street McDonald’s to pour the special blend served only in New England.

But first she talked about what she called her “ah ha moment” that has directed the path of her life. She was 8 years old and reading about how the Peregrine Falcon was extinct in the Northeast. From that moment on she became sympathetic to environmental issues.

She went to the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, and got her degree in human ecology. She was working for a nonprofit and watching the success of her father’s company and knew she wanted to start an organic branch of Newman’s Own.

“Pop said he’d entertain the idea,” she said.

It was the early ’90s and organic wasn’t exactly a mainstream idea. As the cook in the family, she flew from her home in California to the Westport, Conn., homestead and made Thanksgiving dinner. Her father loved the meal.

That’s when she asked him, “How’d you like your organic meal?”

“That was the ‘ah ha moment’ for him,” she said.

He told her to research the subject, so she and her business partner did just that. “Pop” paid each of them $15,000 for the year and they educated themselves visiting natural food stores and production facilities. They decided to start with a single product, pretzels.

They were her father’s favorite snack food, she said.

Now they had to visit baking facilities, including several in Pennsylvania and a few out West. But they had a hard time finding one which could keep all the organic ingredients separate from the non-organic products they were making.

“That was a stumbling block,” she said. But the separation was necessary to preserve the integrity of the pretzel.

Eventually they made the pretzels, and today Newman’s Own Organics makes 147 products, including the McDonald’s coffee.

Now the challenge is to continue to grow the company from her Santa Cruz, Calif., home base.

When she started, being organic alone was enough of a niche. Now that’s not enough anymore, so she is searching for a more specialized slot. What hasn’t changed is that she thinks consumers are interested in where their food comes from.

After her father started selling his salad dressing with a friend in 1982, “he felt guilty to be sticking the profits in his pocket,” Newman said. “It was making so much money.”

Then as now, all the royalties of the company go to Newman’s Own Foundation.

“I like that it is Pop’s legacy,” she said.

gciampa@projo.com