William Rosenberg (June 10, 1916 – September 22, 2002) was an American
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
who founded the
Dunkin' Donuts franchise in 1950 in
Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...
, one of the pioneers in name-brand franchising, originally named the "Open Kettle" doughnut shop when established in 1948. At the end of 2011, there were more than 10,000 outlets of the chain in 32 countries.
Early life
Rosenberg was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, one of four children of Nathan Rosenberg, a grocery owner, and Phoebe Rosenberg (née Swart). Both parents were
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
-German immigrants from Prussia. Rosenberg grew up in Boston's working-class
Dorchester neighborhood and was educated in
public schools.
Due to financial problems, he was forced to leave school by
eighth grade to help support his family, who had lost their store during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.
Career
After several jobs, at age fourteen, he went to work for
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...
as a full-time telegram delivery boy. At seventeen, he started working for Simco, a company that distributed
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...
from refrigerated trucks, rising from delivery boy to national sales manager at age twenty-one, supervising the production, shipping, cold storage and manufacturing and managing 40 to 100 trucks.
At the start of
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 ...
, he joined
Bethlehem Steel
The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...
in
Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham ( ) is a town in metropolitan Greater Boston on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts in northern Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, t ...
. He later became the first Jewish
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
delegate. After the war, Rosenberg borrowed $1,000 to add to his $1,500 in
war bond
War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...
s and used his knowledge of food distribution to open his first company "Industrial Luncheon Services", a company that delivered meals and
coffee break
A break at work (or work-break) is a period of time during a shift in which an employee is allowed to take time off from their job. It is a type of downtime. There are different types of breaks, and depending on the length and the employer' ...
snacks
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 ...
to
factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...
workers
The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic reg ...
on the outskirts of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. Rosenberg created his own catering vehicles, with sides that rose to reveal sandwiches and snacks stocked on stainless steel shelves, an early predecessor to
mobile catering
Mobile catering is the business of selling prepared food from some sort of vehicle. It is a feature of urban culture in many countries. Mobile catering can be performed using food trucks, trailers, carts and food stands. Many types of foods may b ...
vehicle. Within a short time, he had 200 catering trucks, 25 in-plant outlets and a vending operation.
Noticing that forty percent of his revenues came from coffee and doughnuts, he started a retail shop that specialized in those products, opening his first coffee and
doughnut shop, the "Open Kettle" on Memorial Day in 1948, later renamed "Dunkin' Donuts".
Instead of the five different types of doughnuts doughnut shops traditionally offered, Rosenberg offered 52 different varieties. In 1955, upon opening his sixth shop, he decided on the concept of franchising his business as a means of distribution and expansion.
In 1959, after the franchise idea had started to catch on, he lobbied at a trade show for the creation of the industry group that became the International Franchise Association in 1960.
In the early 1960s, Rosenberg founded a
fast food
Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...
chain, Howdy Beefburgers (later Howdy Beef n' Burger), in
, locating many of its restaurants beside
Dunkin' Donuts shops so they could share common parking lots to compete with larger chains such as
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
for retail space and customer draw. Howdy Beefburgers was inspired by ''
The Howdy Doody Show
''Howdy Doody'' is an American children's television program (with circus and Western frontier themes) that was created and produced by Victor F Campbell '' that had run on
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
from 1947 to 1960, and even adapted
Howdy Doody
''Howdy Doody'' is an American Children's television series, children's television program (with circus and Western (genre), Western frontier themes) that was created and produced by Victor F Campbell as its mascot. Serving such products as hamburgers, French fries, fish sandwiches and
New England clam chowder
Clam chowder is any of several chowder soups in American cuisine containing clams. In addition to clams, common ingredients include diced potatoes, salt pork, and onions. Other vegetables are not typically used. It is believed that clams were us ...
, the chain had restaurants in as many as 27 locations throughout New England before dissolving toward the end of the 1970s.
In 1968, Rosenberg bought Wilrose Farm in rural
East Kingston, New Hampshire
East Kingston is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,441 at the 2020 census.
History
East Kingston was once a part of Kingston called "Kingston East Parish", but was granted a separate charter in 1 ...
.
After being diagnosed with lung cancer in 1971, he was luckily able to catch the disease in time. He began devoting most of his time to the farm, becoming the largest
standardbred
The Standardbred is an American horse breed best known for its ability in harness racing, where members of the breed compete at either a trot or pace. Developed in North America, the Standardbred is recognized worldwide, and the breed can trace i ...
breeder in New England and was inducted into the New England Hall of Fame of the Standardbred Industry.
In 1980, he donated Wilrose Farm to the
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...
,
and later became involved in philanthropy, primarily benefiting hospitals.
In 2001, he published his autobiography, ''Time to Make the Donuts: The Founder of Dunkin Donuts Shares an American Journey'', written with the help of Jessica Brilliant Keener.
Personal life
Rosenberg was married twice. In 1937, he married Bertha "Bookie" Greenberg and they had three children:
Bob Rosenberg, Carol Rosenberg Silverstein, and Donald "Don" Rosenberg. They later divorced.
[University of New Hampshire Library: "Guide to the William Rosenberg Papers, 1940-2002"](_blank)
Collection number: MC 187Legacy.com: "Bertha (Greenberg) Rosenberg"
retrieved September 3, 2014 In 1978, he married Ann Aluisy of Farmington, New Hampshire
Farmington is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,722 at the 2020 census. Farmington is home to Blue Job State Forest, the Tebbetts Hill Reservation, and Baxter Lake.
The town center, where 3,824 peo ...
.
On September 22, 2002, Rosenberg died of bladder cancer
Bladder cancer is any of several types of cancer arising from the tissues of the urinary bladder. Symptoms include blood in the urine, pain with urination, and low back pain. It is caused when epithelial cells that line the bladder become mali ...
at the age of 86 in his home in Mashpee, Massachusetts
Mashpee ( wam, Mâseepee) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, on Cape Cod. The population was 15,060 as of 2020. The town is the site of the headquarters and most members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, one of two fed ...
.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenberg, William
1916 births
2002 deaths
American food company founders
American people of German-Jewish descent
20th-century American Jews
Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Bethlehem Steel people
Fast-food chain founders
Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts
Deaths from bladder cancer
20th-century American businesspeople
21st-century American Jews