James Marker (c. 1922 – May 2, 2012) was an American-born Canadian businessman who invented

Cheezies Cheezies are a brand of cheese puffs, cheese puff snack food made and sold in Canada by W. T. Hawkins Ltd. The snack is made from extruded cornmeal covered in powdered cheddar cheese, and sold in distinctive red-and-white bags. History The snack ...

, a brand of

cheese curl Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, Mouthfeel, textures, and forms by coagulation (milk), coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, Water buffalo, bu ...

snack food A snack is a small portion of food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home. Traditionally, snack ...

popular in Canada. Marker also established the Belleville Aerodrome, a private airport, in 1961. Marker was born in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...

. Marker, who was originally a farmer, worked within the confectionery industry in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, for many years. However, Marker invented a new machine used to process

cornmeal Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) or a cell membrane ground from dried corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', ...

. The machine caught the attention of Marker's

business partner A business partner is a commercial entity with which another commercial entity has some form of alliance. This relationship may be a contractual, exclusive bond in which both entities commit not to ally with third parties. Alternatively, it may be ...

, W. T. Hawkins. Together, Marker and Hawkins moved to Canada and founded the W. T. Hawkin Company in 1949, which manufactures the Cheezies snack. Marker and Hawkin originally started their new company in

Tweed, Ontario Tweed is a municipality located in central-eastern Ontario, Canada, in Hastings County. History The Municipality of Tweed is an amalgamated municipality comprising the former Village of Tweed and the former Hungerford Township and former Elzevi ...

, to take advantage of the areas railroads to ship their Cheezies. A fire destroyed their original Tweed factory in 1956, and they relocated to their company's current location in

Belleville, Ontario Belleville is a city in Ontario, Canada situated on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, located at the mouth of the Moira River and on the Bay of Quinte. Belleville is between Ottawa and Toronto, along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Its population ...

. They concentrated exclusively on Cheezies after dropping other snack foods from their portfolio. Marker designed the machine used to create Cheezies, which shaped the snacks, cooked them in

vegetable shortening Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term ''shortening'' seldom refers to b ...

, and coated the snacks with aged

cheddar Cheddar most often refers to either: *Cheddar cheese *Cheddar, Somerset, the village after which Cheddar cheese is named Cheddar may also refer to: Places * Cheddar, Ontario, Canada * Cheddar Yeo, a river which flows through Cheddar Gorge and th ...

. No two Cheezies pieces are exactly alike. Marker's original machine is still used to manufacture Cheezies at the company's plant, as of 2012. Marker remained Vice President of the W. T. Hawkin Company until his death in 2012. He last visited the Cheezies factory for a surprise inspection in March 2012. Outside of the snack food industry, Marker established the Belleville Aerodrome in Ontario in 1961. He frequently used the airport to fly his Apache plane. Marker died on May 2, 2012, at his home in

, at the age of 90. The W. T. Hawkin's Cheezies factory closed for the remainder of the day upon news of Marker's death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marker, James 1920s births 2012 deaths Canadian food industry businesspeople Canadian inventors American emigrants to Canada Businesspeople from Belleville, Ontario