Will Keith Kellogg

Will Keith Kellogg(bornWilliam Keith Kellogg;April 7, 1860 – October 6, 1951) was an American industrialist in food manufacturing, who founded theKellogg Company, which produces a wide variety of popular breakfast cereals. He was a member of theSeventh-day Adventist Churchand practiced vegetarianism as a dietary principle taught by his church.He also founded theKellogg Arabian Ranch, which breedsArabian horses.  Kellogg was a philanthropist and started theKellogg Foundationin 1934 with a $66-million donation.
As a young businessman, Kellogg started out selling brooms in his hometown ofBattle Creek, Michigan. In December 1878, W.K. Kellogg was hired by George H. King at the urging ofJames Springer White, also known as Elder White, to help run his new broom factory in Dallas, Texas.W.K. returned home in November 1879 to help his brotherJohn Harvey Kelloggmanage theBattle Creek Sanitarium. The sanitarium, originally the Western Health Reform Institute, was part of a pioneering effort based on the health principles advocated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Kellogg family are of paternal English descent which can be traced to three brothers Daniel, Joseph and Samuel, ofBraintree, Essex, England, who emigrated to theConnecticut colonyin the 17th century.
John Kellogg described the Sanitarium system as "a composite physiologic method comprising hydrotherapy, phototherapy, thermotherapy, electrotherapy, mechanotherapy, dietetics, physical culture, cold-air cure, and health training".
The Kelloggs pioneered the process of making flaked cereal. Because of the commercial potential of the discovery, W.K. wanted it kept a secret. However, John allowed anyone in the sanitarium to observe the flaking process and one sanitarium guest,C. W. Post, copied the process to start his own company. That company becamePost Cerealsand, later,General Foods, the source of Post's first million dollars. That upset W.K. to the extent that he left the sanitarium to create his own company.
Together with his brother John, W.K. Kellogg promoted cereals, especially corn flakes (maize), as a healthy breakfast food. They started the Sanitas Food Company around 1897, focusing on the production of their whole-grain cereals. At the time, the standard breakfast for the well-off was eggs and meat, while the poor ate porridge,farina, gruel and other boiled grains. The brothers eventually argued over the addition of sugar to their product, with W.K. in favour of adding sugar and John opposed. In 1906, Will founded theBattle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, which later became theKellogg Company.
In 1930, he established theW. K. Kellogg Foundation, ultimately donating $66 million to it.His company was one of the first to put nutrition labels on foods. He also offered the first inside-the-boxprizefor children.Kellogg said, "I will invest my money in people."
During theGreat Depression, Kellogg directed his cereal plant to work four shifts, each lasting six hours. This gave more people in Battle Creek the opportunity to work during that time.
Kellogg had a longtime interest inArabian horses. In 1925, he purchased 377 acres (153 hectares) for $250,000 inPomona, California, to establish anArabian horse ranch. Starting with breeding stock descended from the imports ofHomer DavenportandW. R. Brown, Kellogg then looked toEngland, where he purchased a significant number of horses from theCrabbet Arabian Stud, making multiple importations during the 1920s. The Kellogg ranch became well known in southern California not only for its horse breeding program but also for its entertaining, weekly horse exhibitions, open to the public and frequently visited by assorted Hollywood celebrities. Among many other connections to Hollywood, the actorRudolph Valentinoborrowed the Kellogg stallion "Jadaan" for his 1926 movieSon of the Sheik,along with a Kellogg employee,Carl Raswan, who rode in certain scenes as Valentino's stunt double.
In 1932, Kellogg donated the ranch, which had grown to 750 acres (304 hectares), to theUniversity of California. In 1933, the ranch obtained some of the horses sold in the dispersal of Brown's Maynesboro stud.DuringWorld War II, the ranch was taken over by theU.S. War Departmentand was known as thePomona Quartermaster Depot (Remount).
In 1948, the ranch was transferred to theU.S. Department of Agriculture; and in 1949, the land was deeded to the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Later in 1949, title to the then 813-acre (329-hectare) ranch and horses was passed to the State of California, with the provision that the herd of Arabian horses must be maintained. The ranch became part of the Voorhis unit of what was then known as theCalifornia Polytechnic State CollegeinPomona. This became known as the Kellogg Campus, and in 1966, it was separated to formCalifornia State Polytechnic College, Kellogg-Voorhis.
The ranch was also the location of the W. K. Kellogg Airport (not to be confused with theairport of the same nameinBattle Creek, Michigan). It operated from 1928 to 1932, and was then the largest privately owned airport in the country.
Some of Kellogg's property near Battle Creek was donated toMichigan State Collegeand is now theKellogg Biological Station.
Will Keith Kellogg died at the age of 91  in Battle Creek, Michigan, on October 6, 1951, of circulatory illness.He was buried there at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Kellogg outlived most of his children but was survived by two of them, Karl Hugh (d. 1955) and Elizabeth Ann (d. 1966), as well as grandsons Norman Williamson, Jr. (d. 2001) and Will Keith Kellogg II (d. 2005).
The Kellogg Foundation quotes W.K. as follows:
The philanthropy of W. K. Kellogg is recognized as instrumental to the founding ofCalifornia State Polytechnic University, Pomona(Cal Poly Pomona) andKellogg College, Oxford.
Kellogg appears in "The Manual for Murder" (February 18, 2019), episode 16 of season 12 of theCanadian televisionperiod dramaMurdoch Mysteries.Kellogg is played by actor Todd Thomas Dark.