William “Bill” Post, who is credited with inventing the iconic breakfast food Pop-Tart, died at the age of 96. According to a local obituary in The Grand Rapids Press, he died on Saturday, February 10th.
Post was born in Michigan on June 27, 1927, to Dutch immigrants. He grew up in the Grand Rapids area and started working as a truck washer at the Hekman Biscuit Company when he was 16 years old. He continued his job after returning from the Army Air Corps in Japan, eventually becoming a personnel manager at Hekman at the age of 21.
Hekman eventually became the Keebler Company, which began working with Kellogg’s on a new breakfast product in the early 1960s. Post, the plant manager at the time, helped lead the team that developed the Pop-Tart, which took four months to complete. Originally dubbed by Post as “fruit scones,” the item became the Pop-Tart and was an instant success.
“There were so many naysayers,” Post explained in a 2021 interview with WWMT. “Some of my good friends would say, ‘I don’t know Bill.’ They would tell us it’s not such a good idea.”
Kellogg’s eventually purchased the Keebler company, so Post and his family relocated to Elmhurst, Illinois, where he worked as senior vice president until his retirement at the age of 56. He then returned to the company as a consultant, staying for another 20 years. After retiring, he moved to Glen Arbor before returning to Grand Rapids in 2003 to be closer to his family.