Leon Weston "Pete" Harman (January 16, 1919 – November 19, 2014) was an American businessman best known for having struck a deal with

Colonel Harland Sanders Colonel Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890 December 16, 1980) was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (also known as KFC) and later acting as the company's brand amba ...

to open the first KFC

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

. Located in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, Harman's location opened for business in August 1952.

Early life

Harman was born in 1919 in Granger, now a part of

West Valley City West Valley City is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt Lake County and a suburb of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 140,230 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns in ...

, a suburb of

to David Reese Harman (1874–1924) and Grace May Hemenway (1879–1919) . Harman was the youngest of 14 children in a

Latter-day Saint Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

family. Harman's mother died two days after he was born, and his father later married Caroline Hemenway Harman, the widow of Pete's uncle. Harman was a major donor to the construction of the Caroline Hemenway Harman Continuing Education Building at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

, named after his step-mother. Harman and his wife, Arline, opened their first restaurant, The Do Drop Inn, with two employees in 1941. They had met in the 1930s while both employees at the same restaurant in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, and married in 1938.

Career

Harman worked with Colonel Sanders to develop and prepare the KFC system for franchising, working to develop training manuals and product guides. His other claims to fame are the development of the bucket packaging and the emphasis on the "Finger-lickin' good" motto. In 1990 the International Foodservice Manufacturer Association recognized Harman's achievements with its Gold Plate Award. At the time of the award the Harman Management Corp. of

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 census. Most of the city's growth occurred between 1950 and 1980. Originally ...

, employed over 4,000 people and operated 238 KFC stores in four states. Credit for his success was given to his enlightened practices towards his staff including stock purchase schemes. His original KFC building was demolished in 2004 to make way for a museum and an updated restaurant. Harman relocated to Los Altos, California as the scope of his business expanded in the 1960s. He lived there until his death on November 19, 2014, at 95 years old.

References

External links

''Deseret News''
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Keegan, Peter O.; "IFMA gold-plates 'Pete' Harman - International Foodservice Manufacturer Association"; ''Nation's Restaurant News''
June 4, 1990

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harman, Pete 1919 births 2014 deaths American restaurateurs Fast-food chain founders Latter Day Saints from Utah KFC people 20th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Utah People from West Valley City, Utah