Richard K. Ransom (September 13, 1919 – April 11, 2016) was an American businessman and founder of

Hickory Farms Hickory Farms, LLC is an American food gift retailer with headquarters in Chicago. Richard Ransom established the company in 1951 when he began selling handcrafted cheese at local fairs. By 1959, the company added summer sausage and opened its fi ...

Life

Ransom graduated from

DeVilbiss High School (Toledo, Ohio) Thomas A. DeVilbiss High School was a public high school in Toledo, Ohio from 1931 to June 1991. It was part of the Toledo Public School District, serving students from the DeVeaux, Elmhurst, Grove Patterson, Longfellow, Mayfair, McKinley, Nath ...

in 1938. He served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, at

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

. Starting in 1951, he built a specialty foods business, using the technique of "free samples". He sold Hickory Farms to General Host Corporation in 1980.

Philanthropy

He was on the board of the

Toledo Zoo The Toledo Zoo & Aquarium, located in Toledo, Ohio, is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), through the year 2022. The Toledo Zoo & Aquarium houses over ...

and Riverside Hospital. He was board chairman of

St. John's Jesuit High School and Academy St. John's Jesuit High School & Academy comprises two schools on the same campus: St. John's Jesuit High School (SJJ) and St. John's Jesuit Academy (SJJA). It is located within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo. Both are private, all-male Je ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ransom, Richard 1919 births 2016 deaths American food company founders American military personnel of World War II