 |
||||
|
Ray Kroc
Ray Kroc grew up in south Oak Park, attending Lincoln school and Oak Park River Forest High School into his sophomore year. He left to join the army at age 15, where one of his friends was Walt Disney. After serving the army, he held a number of jobs including a jazz pianist, salesman for Lily Tulip Corp., musical director for WGES (prior to WOPA,) and sold real estate in Florida in the 1920’s. He then returned to Lily Corp and at the age of 52 became the nationwide distributor for the Multimixer (a six prong mixer to blend up to six milkshakes at a time.) Once he heard the McDonald brothers in California had eight machines, he had to visit and see their operation in 1954. In two days he had an arrangement to open more McDonalds in the U.S. In 1961, he bought out the McDonalds brothers out for $2.7 million dollars and the rest is history. His dedication to providing his customers with consistent quality, service, cleanliness, value, and innovative use of cooking techniques prompted a Harvard Business school professor to describe him as the “Henry Ford of the service industry.” He went on to own the San Diego Padres baseball team and was involved in many charitable activities such as diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and chemical dependency. He received many prestigious awards for his business and charitable contributions. To learn more about Ray Kroc's legacy, visit here: mcdonalds.com |
||||
All
images on the Historic Society pages are from photographs owned by |
||||
