Profile of the Day: W. K. Kellogg

W. K. Kellogg

Today we remember W. K. Kellogg, who passed away on this day in 1951. He was best known as the founder of the Kellogg Company, which produces a wide variety of breakfast cereals. Kellogg was born Will Keith Kellogg on April 7, 1860 in Battle Creek, Michigan. He helped his brother, John Harvey Kellogg run the Battle Creek Sanitarium which was where they pioneered the process of making flaked cereal.

In 1906, Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company which later became the Kellogg Company. He promoted cereals as a healthy breakfast food, especially corn flakes. His company was one of the first to put nutrition labels on foods and also offered the first prize for children inside the box. Kellogg had said that he would invest his money in people. During the Great Depression he had adjusted his cereal plant work shifts in order to give more people the opportunity to work during that time. He established the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in 1930 and is now one of the largest philanthropic foundation in the U.S.

Did you know Kellogg had a longtime interest in Arabian horses? In 1925 he established an Arabian horse ranch in Pomona, California. Actor Rudolph Valentino had borrowed one of Kellogg’s stallions for use in his 1926 movie, Son of the Sheik. The ranch was passed to the State of California in 1949 and is now the location of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The philanthropy of W. K. Kellogg is recognized as instrumental to the founding of the University in Pomona and of Kellogg College, Oxford, England.

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