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William “Bill” Post, the Michigan man widely credited with inventing Pop-Tarts for the Kellogg’s breakfast food company, died on Saturday, according to an online obituary. He was 96.
Post lived a life of “legendary accomplishments,” though the man himself would likely have downplayed the one for which he was best known, according to the obituary. He enjoyed retelling the story of how the Pop-Tart came to be, however, and would always bring “some of his unending supply” to share with the students whose classrooms he was invited to visit.
Born in 1927, Post was raised on the south side of Grand Rapids, served in the Army Air Corps in occupied Japan, married his high school sweetheart, and worked his way up to become a plant manager at the Keebler Company, then known as Hekman. His place in snack food history, however, would not be cemented until the early 1960s.