Will Keith Kellogg. Sound familiar? In any event his last name should ring a bell, mainly because Kellogg-brand cereal has adorned the counters of several American homes since its start in 1906. Behind this iconic name is story, quite an interesting one some might say, a story of two brothers who differ in more ways than one. Divided into five sections below is a brief synopsis of the uber-interesting and ever-changing life and legacy of Will Keith Kellogg, king and creator of the cornflake.
Early Life
Will Keith Kellogg was born on April 7, 1860 in Battle Creek, Michigan to John and Janette Kellogg. As a child he grew up in a Seventh - Day Adventist home (a member of the Protestant sect who believed that the world would end in their lifetime) with his older brother John Harvey Kellogg, who grew up to be a wildly popular and successful doctor at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Unlike his prestigious brother, Will Kellogg stopped schooling at age fourteen and had become a broom salesperson by the age of fifteen. Remarkably he…show more content… Asides from being the maker of the No. 1 ready-to-cereal in America, Will also created a thick peanut spread call Nut Butter (although the patent was never enforced). Will also did many other great things in his life; some of these include donating to local charities, running his factory on four six-hour shifts in order to create jobs during the Depression and setting up the Child Welfare Foundation in order to help children living in poverty. This organization was eventually renamed the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in honor of its founder. Today this organization still thrives greatly due to Will Kellogg himself who willed most of the 60% interest he made from the company to the foundation. Today the W. K. Kellogg Foundation is one the the largest private charities due to its 34% ownership of the Kellogg
