Sam Walton. Businessman. After graduating from the University of Missouri, he began his career as a retail merchant when he opened the first of several franchises of the Ben Franklin five-and-dime franchises in Arkansas. He opened his first Wal-Mart store in 1962; specializing in name-brands at low prices, the chain of Wal-Mart stores sprang up across rural America. His management style was popular with employees and helped to spur growth, taking the company public in 1970. The decentralized distribution system created the edge needed to further spur growth in the 1980s amidst growing complaints that the “superstore” was squelching smaller, traditional Mom and Pop stores. By 1991, Wal-Mart was the largest U.S. retailer with 1,700 stores. He remained active in managing the company, as president and CEO until 1988 and chairman until his death. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom shortly before his death.

COL Harland Sanders. Business Magnate, Folk Figure. Born in Indiana, over the course of his lifetime he came to exemplify to many the true American entrepreneurial spirit. Sanders’ father died when Harland was only 6 years old and he had to help his mother care for his younger brother and sister. This meant doing much of the family cooking. He got his first job when he was 10 and for the next 30 years, Sanders held a variety of jobs ranging from streetcar conductor, a railroad fireman, insurance salesman and service station operator. It was while operating a service station in Corbin, Kentucky in 1930 that Sanders began serving food to travelers that stopped at his service station. He served his customers on his own dining table in the living quarters of the service station. As more people started coming to the service station just for the food, Sanders moved across the street to a motel and restaurant where he could seat more people. Over the next 9 years, he perfected his famous, and very secret, fried chicken recipe that is still used today. As the popularity of his fried chicken grew, Sanders fame began to spread across the state of Kentucky. He was even made a Kentucky Colonel by the Governor of the state in 1935. However, in the 1950’s a new interstate highway was planned that would bypass Corbin. Recognizing that his business was doomed, Sanders sold off his restaurant operations and after paying his bills, was reduced to living on his $105 a month Social Security checks. Confident in the quality of his fried chicken, at 62 years old, Sanders devoted himself to franchising his famous chicken. He drove all over the country, cooking batches of chicken for restaurant owners and their employees. If the reaction was favorable, he entered into a handshake agreement on a deal that stipulated a payment to him of a nickel for each chicken the restaurant sold. By 1964, Colonel Sanders had more than 600 franchised outlets for his chicken in the United States and Canada. That same year he sold his interest in the U.S. company for $2 million to a group of investors. However, he remained a public spokesman for the company and traveled all over the world on behalf of the chicken he had made famous. Until he died at the age of 90, Colonel Sanders had traveled over 250,000 miles a year promoting Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Milton Snavely Hershey. Businessman. He founded the Hershey Company confection manufacturer, and built it into the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Born in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, at age 13 he worked as an apprentice for a newspaper but was later fired. He traveled west to Denver, Colorado, where he worked for a caramel maker. When he returned to Lancaster, Pennsylvania he opened Lancaster Caramel Company, and became wealthy by 1894. At that time, chocolate had to be imported and was considered a delicacy and was only available for those who could afford it. At the 1893 World’s Colombian Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois, he was introduced to and later bought German chocolate machinery. By 1894 Milton Hershey was making 114 varieties of chocolate. After selling his caramel business for 1 million dollars in 1900, he had a new factory built in his hometown, Derry Township which was completed in 1905 and decided to build a town around his factory. By 1913 Hershey, Pennsylvania had been well established with schools, churches, banks, hotels and parks. During the Depression Era of the 1930s, Hershey’s factory expanded, and no one lost their job. He continued at the head of the company until his death in 1945. Today, Hersey’s chocolates, especially the Hershey bar, are one of the most recognizable confections in the world.

John Fremont “Grandpa” McCullough. Entrepreneur. After attending college in Oswego, New York, he moved to Davenport, Iowa in 1911, then went into the dairy business in nearby Green River, Illinois. In 1938, he and his son Bradley developed a formula for soft-serve ice cream. They tested their new product at the ice cream retail shop of one of their customers, Sheb Noble on August 4, 1938. They sold over 1,600 servings for ten cents each in just two hours. The McCulloughs spent the next two years modifying a soft serve freezer to work for their concept. In 1940, the McCulloughs and Mr. Noble opened their first soft serve ice cream stand in Joliet, Illinois. John “Grandpa” McCullough named the shop Dairy Queen, since he viewed the cow as the queen of the dairy industry, and his soft serve ice cream as the queen of dairy products. Dairy Queen was a pioneer of the franchising concept, growing from 100 stores in 1947 to 2,600 in 1955. Today, there are almost 6,000 Dairy Queen restaurants in the United States, Canada, and twenty foreign countries. 

Forrest Edward Mars, Sr. Businessman. Inventor of M&M’s. The son of Mars candy company founder Franklin C. Mars, he left the family business after a dispute with his father and established his own company, Forrest Mars Food Manufacturers. He invented and patented a candy-coated chocolate in 1940 under a partnership with Bruce Murrie, son of a Hershey’s Chocolate executive, hence the name “M&M”, which stands for “Mars & Murrie”. After his father’s death he took over Mars, Inc. and merged it with his own company, successfully running it until he retired in 1973. At the time of his death he was one of the richest people in the United States. M&M/Mars is still privately owned by the Mars family and is the largest chocolate and candy company in the world.

Franklin Clarence Mars. Businessman. He founded the Mars Candy Factory in 1911, which exists in the present day as Mars, Incorporated. Among the candy products he created was the “Milky Way” candy bar, which is one of the best selling confections in history. His son, Forrest Mars created the “Mars Bar” in 1933 in England by adding a layer of caramel to the Milky Way bar.

Jay Catherwood Hormel. Business Magnate. “J.C.” Hormel, known as the “Spam Man” for his most popular product, pioneered the canned meat business. Hormel, son of the company’s founder, was determined to find cause for several thousand pounds of surplus pork shoulder. He developed a distinctive canned blend of chopped pork and ham known as Hormel spiced ham that didn’t require refrigeration. As a result of his successful marketing campaigns and promotions, 70% of urban Americans used canned meats in 1940, compared with only 18% in 1937. By 1946, Hormel Company was the largest independent meat processing establishment in the U.S.

Cornelius Vanderbilt. 19th Century American shipping and railroad tycoon. Best known as the patriarch of the socially prominent Vanderbilt family of New York, and as the founder of the New York Central Railroad. Young Vanderbilt quit school at age 11 and started working as a deck hand on the ferries of New York City. By age 16, he was operating his own ferry line, carrying freight and passengers. By 1830, his business had expanded to encompass the entire Hudson River valley. Soon he controlled coastal trade along the entire coast of New England. During the California Gold Rush, he ran a steamship line from New York to California via Nicaragua. It was during this period that he acquired the moniker “The Commodore” because of his extensive interests in the shipping business. In the early 1860’s, Vanderbilt sold all his steamships to the Union navy and began investing in railroads. By 1869, he had merged 17 local railroads to create the New York Central system. By 1873 he had added the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern system to extend his rail empire to Chicago and challenge the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad for New York to Chicago business. He founded Vanderbilt University with a grant of $1 million. At the time of his death, Vanderbilt, at a net worth of over $100 million (equivalent to $8 billion in today’s money), was the richest man in the world.

Bernard Henry “Barney” Kroger, Sr Grocery Store Magnate. Kroger began working as a door to door salesman for the Great Northern and Pacific Tea Co., eventually ending up at the Imperial Tea Co. The grocery was not doing well, and the two owners made Kroger a manager. When the owners later refused to make Kroger a partner, he used his own money to open his own grocery. Kroger’s store, The Great Western Tea Co., succeeded despite numerous growing pains and catastrophes. Kroger opened four separate locations within two years. He renamed the company Kroger Grocery and Baking Co. in 1902, later shortened to Kroger, and opened over 5500 stores by the end of the 1920s. He is credited with introducing the low-cost grocery chain models that persist today.

Thomas Watson. Chairman of IBM. became General Manager in 1914 and President in 1915 of the CTR Company, which later changed its name to IBM, and rescued it from near extinction. He was famous for making his salespeople at IBM attend sing-a-longs. In 1937, Watson received the Eagle with Star medal from the German Nazi regime for helping with tabulating census data. After the outbreak of World War II, Watson returned the medal. He is known for his 1943 statement: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”

Vincent Astor. Financier, Businessman, Philanthropist. The son of Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, he entered Harvard University only to leave after the death of his father in the sinking of the “RMS Titanic”‘. He was the first Astor, in several generations, to take active control of the family investments, with interests in automobiles, shipping and air transportation, as well as the ancestral involvement in Manhattan, New York City, New York real estate. A Commodore of The New York Yacht Club, his yacht, “Nourmahal”, was utilized for geographical and zoological research and exploration, donating the vessel to the government at the outset of the Second World War. He was the owner of “Newsweek Magazine,” director of Western Union, the Chase Manhattan Bank, and The United States Lines, and was a trustee of the New York Public Library and the New York Zoological Society. During both World Wars he served as a staff officer in the United States Navy; he was a retired Captain in the Naval Reserve. He married in 1914 Helen Dinsmore Huntington, patroness of The Metropolitan Opera. Without issue, he founded ‘The Vincent Astor Foundation’, which has distributed over one hundred million dollars for the benefit of the citizens of New York.

Brooke Astor. Philanthropist. Born Roberta Brooke Russell in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, her father was Major General John Henry Russell Jr., a military officer who eventually became Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. She dropped out of high school in 1919 to marry John Dryden Kuser, (her first serious relationship), when she was 17. The son of the founder of South Jersey Gas and Electric and the grandson of the founder of Prudential Life Insurance Company, he drank heavily, was abusive and adulterous, and announced after a year of marriage that he no longer loved her. A dutiful wife, she did not file for divorce until after he won election to the New Jersey State Senate in 1930. Her second marriage was to stockbroker Charles Marshall, a man of more modest means and kinder temperament. During World War II she worked as a nurse tending to veterans, and when the war ended, unlike most married women of her time, she decided to continue to work rather than give up her job to returning soldiers. She wrote for “House And Garden” magazine, and eventually became an editor there. She was married to Marshall for two decades, until his death. Her third husband was Vincent Astor, who inherited great wealth when his father died aboard the “RMS Titanic” in 1912. A member of the Astor family whose wealth started with John Jacob Astor in the early 19th century, he owned “Newsweek” magazine, the Hotel St. Regis in New York City, New York, and had many millions in real estate, as well as vast holdings in the automobile, shipping, and air transportation industries. Reportedly once told his wife that when he died, she would have “a hell of a good time” giving away his fortune once he died. He died of a heart attack in 1959, and over the next four decades she devoted her time to donating the vast fortune to philanthropic endeavors, such as the Bronx Zoo, the International Rescue Committee, the Fresh Air Fund, Lighthouse for the Blind, the Maternity Center Association, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library. In total, she donated in her time an estimated $195 million. Suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, in 2006 she became the subject of a lawsuit alleging elder abuse by her son, Anthony Dryden Marshall (her child with John Dryden Kuser – he had adopted the surname of his step father, Charles Marshall). Family members claimed that late in her life, Anthony Dryden Marshall forced Brooke Astor to sleep on a urine-drenched couch, kept her beloved dogs locked in a separate room, replaced her name-brand face cream with petroleum jelly, and switched her prescriptions to lower-cost generic drugs. A court appointed fashion designers Oscar de la Renta’s wife Annette, a close friend of Brooke Astor, to act as her temporary guardian, and assigned financial giant J P Morgan Chase to oversee her assets. A Morgan Chase audit raised questions about $14 million in cash, property and stocks that Anthony Dryden Marshall received from his mother, who may not have realized what she was signing. Brooke Astor died at the age of 105 in August 2007, and in October 2009 her son was convicted of grand larceny stemming from his abuse of her.

Walter Percy Chrysler. Industrialist. He was the first President and Founder of the Chrysler Corporation. Walter Chrysler was born in Wamego, Kansas, and shortly afterwards, his family moved to Oelwein, Iowa. His automotive career began when the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) decided to expand into making automobiles. Chrysler’s interest in automobiles had begun in 1908, when he bought his first car. When ALCO’s sales began to slide after just two years in the car-making business, Chrysler saw the handwriting on the wall, and in 1911, he quit ALCO to become the factory manager of the Buick Motor Company; just two years later, ALCO quit the automobile business altogether. In 1916, he became President of the Buick Motor Company, but resigned in 1919, to take over as Vice-President of the Willys-Overland Motor Company in Toledo, Ohio. At that time, his salary was $1 million a year, a record salary for that time. Shortly afterwards, Chrysler attempted to oust President John Willys in a takeover bid that backfired when the shareholders refused to support him. Chrysler left the company in 1921 after taking controlling interest in the Maxwell Motor Company. Four years later, he absorbed Maxwell into his fledging Chrysler Corporation, never looking back. In addition to Chrysler automobiles, the company also created the Plymouth and DeSoto automobiles, and in 1928, purchased the Dodge Corporation. He financed the construction of what was then the tallest building in the world, the Chrysler Building, in New York City, soon to be bested by the Empire State Building, and earning the 1928 title of Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. Chrysler’s autobiography was titled “The Life of an American Workman.” Chrysler was President of the company from 1925 to 1935, and continued to serve as Chairman of the Board from 1935 until his death in 1940.

John Francis Dodge. Automobile Pioneer and Manufacturer. He, along with his younger brother Horace Elgin Dodge, founded the successful automobile firm Dodge Brothers Company. Born the third of four children in Niles, Michigan his father owned a foundry and machine shop. In 1886 he and his brother moved to Detroit, Michigan where they took jobs at a boilermaker plant. In 1894 they went to work as machinists at the Canadian Typograph Company across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario. He was the sales oriented managerial type while his brother was a gifted mechanic and inveterate tinkerer. In 1897, using a dirt-proof ball bearing that his brother had invented, he arranged a deal for them to join with a third party investor to manufacture bicycles. Within a few years they sold the business and in 1901 used the proceeds of the sale to set up their own machine shop in Detroit. During their first year in business they began making parts for the automobile industry. In 1902 they won a contract to build transmissions for the Olds (Oldsmobile) Motor Vehicle Company upon which they built a solid reputation for quality and service. However, the following year they turned down a second contract from Olds in order to retool their plant to build engines for Henry Ford in a deal that included a share position in the new Ford Motor Company. From 1903 until 1913 their business was a Ford Motor Company supplier, and he worked as vice president of the Ford company. By 1910 he and his brother were so successful they built a new plant in Hamtramck, Michigan. In 1913 Dodge Brothers Company terminated their Ford contract and he left Ford and they devoted their energies toward producing a Dodge automobile. They began building motor trucks, ambulances and other vehicles for the US military during the arms buildup for World War I and in October 1917 they produced their first commercial car. At the end of World War I, their company manufactured and marketed both cars and trucks. A speedboat and yachting enthusiast, his keen interest in the vessel’s engines led him to establish a marine division as part of their automotive business. In 1919 Henry Ford bought out the Dodge brothers’ shareholdings in Ford Motor Company for $25 million. The following year he died of complications from the Spanish flu at the age of 55. In 1928 Dodge Brothers was purchased by the fledgling Chrysler Corporation for $170 million.

Carl Graham Fisher. Auto Race Car Executive. Indianapolis Speedway co-founder. Developer of automobile headlights.

Eberhard Anheuser. Businessman. Born in Kreuznach, Germany in 1843, he settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was joined shortly thereafter by his family. For the early part of his entrepreneurial career, people associated him with a completely different product, that product was soap. It is unknown whether he trained as a soap manufacturer in Cincinnati, if this training was part of his education as a chemist in Germany. In 1845 Eberhard and his family moved to St. Louis. Eberhard became a brewer just as changes in American consumer behavior sparked massive growth in beer consumption. Over the course of his career, the American brewing industry began a transition from being mostly small-scale in production, locally based in market, and limited in its competitive nature into an industry known for its acute competitiveness, rapidly expanding production capacity, and internationally expanding market. Although these new trends came to full fruition during the twenty years after Eberhard’s death, he witnessed their birth during his twenty-year career as a brewer. Eberhard made several contacts within the German brewing community. Some became lifelong friends, such as William J. Lemp, the largest brewer in St. Louis at the time. Others became relatives. Eberhard met a young brewery supplier named Adolphus Busch, and his older brother Ulrich, who ended up marrying Eberhard’s daughters Lilly and Anna in a double ceremony in 1861. The company became Anheuser-Busch in 1879. The partners agreed to expand the brewery continually with reinvested money from increased sales, so that the 8,000 barrels produced in 1865 shot to 141,163 by the time of Anheuser’s death in 1880. Using this strategy, the brewery grew so much that it received notice as a local landmark during Eberhard’s lifetime. Eberhard died in 1880, after a long struggle with throat cancer. He was 73 years old.

William Jacob Lemp, Sr. Son of Lemp Brewery founder Johann Adam Lemp, William built the brewery into an industrual giant. In 1870 it was the largest brewery in St. Louis and remained so until the start of Prohibition in 1919. At the time of William’s death, the Lemp brewery was the third largest in the United States. William shot himself through the right temple in his bedroom at the family mansion, apparently still grieving over the loss of his beloved son Frederick, the heir apparent to the family brewery, who died at the age of 28.

Jack Daniel. Businessman. He is was the founder of the Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey distillery. Born into Welsh, Scottish and Irish ancestry, he was the youngest of his mother’s ten children. The exact date of his birth is in dispute. His mother died when he was a young boy and his father was killed during the American Civil War. When he was a teenager, he ran away from home and was taken in by a local preacher and moonshine distiller named Dan Call and began to learn the distilling trade. In 1875 he received an inheritance from his father’s estate and founded a legal distilling business with Call who soon quit for religious reasons. He then purchased the land where the distillery is now located and his business soon expanded to include 15 distilleries. His brand of whiskey soon became very popular and it won the gold medal at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. He died as a result of blood poisoning.

Jacob Best. Business Magnate. Jacob Best learned the brewer’s trade in his hometown of Hesse Darnstadt, Germany, and then moved on to operate a small brewery in Mattenheim. In 1840, two of Best’s four sons immigrated to America, settling in the Kilbourntown section of Milwaukee. They were joined by Jacob Best, his two younger sons and other family members in 1844. With his sons, Jacob Best opened the Emipre Brewery producing lager beer, wiskey and vinegar. As demand increased of light lager beer, the firm changed its name to Best & Company. Retiring in 1853, Jacob Best tranferred ownership to Lorenz and Phillip. After 1860, Phillip assumed sole control of the brewery which became the Pabst Brewing Company.

Jim Beam. Business Magnate. He turned the family bourbon business into an american industry. Under him, the business thrived despite prohibition. He left the distilling business to grow citrus in Florida, among other things. When prohibition ended in 1934 he was ready to fire up the still. He built and moved to a new distillery near his home which is the current location. From this point forward, the bourbon was called “Jim Beam.”

Howard Johnson. Ice Cream and Hotel Magnate. Howard Johnson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1897. He quit school in the eighth grade to work in his father’s cigar store. Johnson served in World War I as a part of the American Expeditionary Force. Soon after Johnson’s return, his father died, leaving him the business and its heavy debt. He sold the business to pay off the debts in 1924. Johnson then borrowed $2,000 to buy a small corner drugstore and soda fountain in Wollaston, Massachusetts. He sold candy, newspapers, cigars, and medicine˜and he was very successful. The popularity of the soda fountain convinced him that having better-tasting ice cream would boost his business. At first, he used his mother’s recipe. Not satisfied with this, he invested $300 in an ice cream recipe from an elderly German immigrant who was retiring. This premium ice cream recipe utilized natural flavors and twice the normal level of butterfat. Johnson began with three flavors, eventually increasing this to twenty-eight flavors. He also sold his ice cream at local beaches to boost business. A local restaurant owner who purchased ice cream from the drug store asked to use the Howard Johnson name on his restaurant. Johnson agreed, which made him the exclusive source of supplies. The restaurant combined a lunch counter, fast food takeout, an ice cream stand, and a sit-down restaurant˜all in one location. Johnson soon began selling franchises of his restaurants. The white buildings trimmed with orange and sea blue became the Howard Johnson trademark. By 1940, Johnson had about 135 restaurants. During World War II, 90 percent of the restaurants closed due to gas rationing. The industrious Johnson contracted to manufacture candy and other goods for the armed forces. After the war, he began expanding his chains nationwide. More Americans were beginning to travel, and Johnson saw a need for better quality motels and hotels to meet the needs of these travelers and their families. Johnson created motor hotels, offering good services and cleanliness. Howard Johnson retired in 1959, leaving the company to his son. However, he continued to monitor his restaurants for cleanliness and proper food preparation, often performing unannounced inspections. By 1965, the Howard Johnson name was to be found on 770 restaurants and 265 motor hotels.

In 1965, sales exceeded those of McDonald’s, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken COMBINED! HoJo’s was the second largest food feeder in the U.S., second only to the U.S. Army. Then American‚s eating habits changed, the landmark Times Square’s HoJo was shuttered at the close of business on July 8, 2005. As of 2006, only five Howard Johnson restaurants and none of the ice cream shops remain in the United States mainly due to increased competition from fast-food restaurants and their low prices. Nevertheless, Howard Johnson made it possible for travelers and families on the go to eat nutritiously and enjoy a higher standard in all aspects of hospitality than was previously available.

Walter Davidson, Sr. Businessman. President and one of the four original founders of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company.

Henry Alden Sherwin. Business Magnate. He was the founder of the Sherwin-Williams paint company.

Simon Lazarus. He founded the Lazarus department store chain.

Alfred Wright. Businessman. He was a successful perfume manufacturer and a deeply religious man, who found that many of his employees were not attending church on Sunday mornings because they were too tired after long hours working the other six days a week. As a result, he ordered all his factories to be closed at noon on Saturdays to give his employees a chance to rest and recuperate before attending their weekly church. This was developed into Malcolm Gray’s revolutionary five-day work-week, which was picked up by Henry Ford and set industry labor standards for the future. He was also a member of the first Rochester Board of Park Commissioners, established in 1888, which began with just over 500 acres of land and now accounts for over 11,000 acres of the Monroe County park system.

James Ritty. Inventor. Born in Dayton, Ohio, he opened his first saloon in Dayton, in 1871 and called it the Pony House. In 1878, he came up with an idea about making a machine that would count sales at the saloon, keep track of the money and the amount of sales. Working with his mechanic brother John, their first few attempts were total failures until he improved it by adding a paper roll to it so it could record the clerk’s sales. The new clock version register had a hole puncher built into it and the paper would have separate invisible columns that would stand for cents or dollars. Filing and receiving a patent for his cash register design in 1879, he couldn’t sell his machine to other people. So they decided to sell the patent for $6,500 to John H. Patterson in 1882, who realized the machine’s potential. In the following years Patterson made it a success and became the founder of the National Cash Register Company. Ritty was not resentful and maintained friendly relations with John H. Patterson who many times invited Ritty to attend various NCR meetings and conferences. James Ritty retired from a successful bar business in 1895. He died of heart failure at age 81 in Dayton, Ohio.

Horace Austin Warner “HAW” Tabor. Business magnate. Noted Colorado mining prospector. Unknown to fame until approaching the age of fifty, chance suddenly brought him considerable wealth and reputation. A few years later another throw of the dice as quickly returned him to his former obscurity but left in the wake a colorful character in the annals of Colorado history. Also known as The Bonanza King of Leadville, was an American prospector, businessman, and Republican politician. His life is the subject of Douglas Moore’s opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe; and the 1932 Hollywood biographical movie: Silver Dollar. Also, Graham Masterton’s 1987 novel Silver has a protagonist named Henry T. Roberts, whose life includes incidents from Tabor’s. He rose from a smalltime prospector to one of the wealthiest men in Colorado because of his luck in Leadville’s silver mines. He became tabloid fodder through his romantic liaisons with Baby Doe Tabor and his fall from power when the United States changed to the gold standard. This shift devalued silver, hurting many in the silver mining industry and devastating fortunes overnight.

Joseph Albert Albertson. Businessman. Born in Yukon, Oklahoma Territory. He was one of four sons born to Rhoda and Earl Albertson. Before he was three, the family moved to Caldwell, Idaho, in 1909, where Joe grew up. After graduating from Caldwell High School in 1925, Albertson studied business for two years at the College of Idaho in Caldwell. While in college in 1927, he began his career in the grocery industry as a clerk at a local Safeway store. In 1930, Joe married his college classmate Kathryn McCurry, of Boise, Idaho. They had one daughter, Barbara. Joe spent ten years working his way up at Safeway, but he knew that he would open his own store. In July 1939, he did just that. With $5,000 of his own money and a $7,500 loan from his wife’s aunt, Albertsons Store 101, at 16th and State Streets in Boise, Idaho, opened with new services that customers hadn’t seen in a grocery store before. He introduced things to shoppers like a scratch bakery, an automatic doughnut machine and one of the first magazine racks in the country. He also sold big, double dip ice cream cones, fresh popcorn and roasted nuts, which all became a hit with shoppers. Joe opened his second and third Albertsons stores in Nampa and Caldwell, Idaho in 1940. During the years of World War II, when food was being rationed, he filled the empty shelves with health and beauty products, general household goods and other non-food items. His reputation for generosity and community involvement grew during those war years. His stores promoted war bonds and sponsored scrap drives that collected aluminum, steel, fats, and paper for recycling. It was only the beginning of a chain that, sixty years later, would have over 600 Albertsons stores, bringing Joe’s visionary idea for a grocery store to millions of customers throughout the country. 

Theodore Edward “Ted” Hustead. Businessman. He co-Founded the Wall Drug shopping mall in Wall, South Dakota, and built into a successful tourist attraction. His campaign of erecting signs for Wall Drug pervasively through South Dakota and neighboring states inspired fans of the attraction to erect signs of their own in other famous sites, sometimes thousands of miles from South Dakota.