Voting Station

Will Keith Kellogg

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Entrepreneur

The Resume

    (April 7, 1860-October 6, 1951)
    Born in Battle Creek, Michigan
    Brother of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
    With his brother, invented corn flakes
    Founded the Battle Creek Toasted Flake Company (1906), later known as the Kellogg Company

Why he might be annoying:

    Like his brother, he was a vegetarian and Seventh Day Adventist.
    He was eventually expelled from the Adventists for 'worldliness.'
    He was fired from John's sanitarium for adding sugar to corn flakes.
    He and John spent over a decade suing each other, eventually resulting in a ruling that only Will could market cereals under the Kellogg name.
    When John produced a cereal named Pep, Will discovered that Pep was already registered as a trademark and purchased the rights to the name just so he could force his brother to destroy thousands of already-printed cartons.
    He was grooming his grandson, John L. Kellogg, Jr., to take over the company until they had a falling out over the grandson's invention of a method of puffing corn grits to create a cereal similar to Rice Krispies.
    When the grandson started his own company to make the cereal, Will responded with a series of lawsuits.
    Depressed over the litigation, John L. Jr. committed suicide in his factory.
    An acquaintance told the family's biographer, 'The Kelloggs were the suing-est people.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He initially was an employee at his brother's sanitarium where he handled all non-medical matters, ranging from bookkeeping to capturing escaped patients.
    Unlike his brother, he was interested in cereal as a means of making money, not stopping masturbation.
    After Will's initial success, John jumped on the bandwagon by marketing his own Kellogg's cereals in nearly identical packaging.
    After the 1929 stock market crash, he told the board of directors, 'Double our advertising budget.' The company continued to grow during the depression, largely because a bowl of cereal was cheaper than ham and eggs.
    He donated $66 million (equivalent to $1 billion in 2012) to establish the Kellogg Foundation and told the staff to 'use the money as you please, so long as it promotes the health, happiness, and well-being of children.'
    He went blind from glaucoma during the last decade of his life.
    His guide dog was the son of Rin Tin Tin.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 154 Votes: 52.60% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 11 Votes: 45.45% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 107 Votes: 67.29% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 11 Votes: 63.64% Annoying