William Post, an entrepreneur credited with inventing Pop-Tarts, a classic American snack and cultural touchstone with alluring sweetness and simplicity, died Feb. 10 in Grand Rapids, Mich. At the age of 96.
His death was confirmed by his son, Dan Post, who said his father died of heart failure at a seniors’ community.
Mr. Post headed the bakery that developed the first Pop-Tarts for Kellogg’s in 1964, his son said. The snack quickly became a popular treat for many people in the United States, including the children of Mr. Post, which was one of the first taste tests.
Today, billions of Pop-Tarts are sold each year, according to Kellogg’s. They have also been depicted in murals, displayed in museums, and parodied by “Saturday Night Live.” And later this year, they’ll star in “Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story,” a farcical chronicle of the 1960s race to win the breakfast-pastry wars, directed by comedian (and Pop-Tarts lover) Jerry Seinfeld.
Over the past 60 years, Pop-Tarts have expanded from four flavors to more than 30. But they’ve also retained the classic shape that made them an American institution: two thin layers of dry, rectangular dough with a sweet filling and frosting.
William Post was born on June 27, 1927 in Grand Rapids. He was one of seven children born to Henry Post and Johanna Jongsta, Dutch immigrants. His father, who was self-employed, drove a truck that he used to empty the ash people took out of their coals.
He attended Grand Rapids Christian High School while working part-time at Hekman Biscuit Company washing trucks. A year after graduating in 1945, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in occupied Japan.
After completing his military service, he returned to work part-time, began studying at Calvin College and began a 72-year marriage to Florence Schut, who died in 2020, his son said. Mr. Post dropped out of college in 1950 and became a full-time personnel manager at Hekman, which later became part of the Keebler Company.
When Kellogg’s approached Mr. Post in 1964, he managed the Hekman plant in Grand Rapids. At the time, Kellogg’s competitor Post was creating a toaster called “Country Squares”, which was later called “Toast’em Pop Ups”. Executives from Kellogg’s, which sold the cereal, asked Mr. Post if his factory would have the capacity to create a similar product.
“Being the absolutely positive person that he was,” his son Dan recalled, “he said, ‘absolutely, give me two weeks.’
There were “a lot of naysayers” and some of his friends said Pop-Tarts “were not such a good idea,” Mr. Post told WWMT, a television station serving West Michigan, in 2021. He ignored them and put together. a team to create what Kellogg wanted.
During those two weeks, he offered prototypes to his children at various stages of product development, his son said.
“They went from a cardboard box to a candy store,” he said. “He would bring home samples almost every day and say, ‘Guys, try them,'” he added. “We’d be like, ‘This isn’t so great.’ After two weeks, we were like, ‘Hey, these are pretty good.’
Since Mr. Post brought the recipe to Kellogg’s, the company sold its first shipment in Cleveland.
Kellogg’s had originally considered calling Pop-Tarts “fruits”. But their final name, coined by one of Kellogg’s executives, William LaMothe, was inspired by the pop culture movement of the time: “Pop Art.”
The first Pop-Tarts weren’t frozen. The icing was added a few years later when Mr. Post came up with the idea, according to his son.
“I said to our supervisor, Hey, why don’t you get some Pop Tarts and put them under that ice?” Mr. Post said in a video released earlier this year by Kellanova, the corporate brand currently used by Kellogg’s. He faced skeptics who thought the icing would melt in the toaster, but it didn’t. “The decision to make all four flavors frozen took one day,” he said.
As Pop-Tarts became an increasingly important part of his business, Mr. Post moved to Illinois in 1967 to begin work at Keebler’s corporate offices, where he became senior vice president.
He retired at 56, but continued to work as a consultant for Kellogg’s until he was 76. He was also involved in his church and served as a board member for schools, churches and a local YMCA.
In addition to his son, Mr. Post is survived by his daughter, Rachel DeYoung, as well as four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Kellogg’s history of the Pop-Tart on its website mentions Mr. LaMothe, the president, coming up with the idea for a “toaster-ready rectangle” and asking Joe Thompson to create it. It does not mention Mr. Post.
But after Mr. Post’s death, the company said in a statement, “He was instrumental in co-creating the iconic Pop-Tarts brand.”
Mr. Post told his Pop-Tarts story to students in his 80s, his son said. He often talked about being the son of immigrants who barely spoke English and challenged the students to do their best and work hard. He would also bring them samples of his unlimited supply of Pop-Tarts.
Whenever he walked into a classroom, his son recalled, he would tell the students, “If you want to be noticed, always do more than what is expected.”
Victor Mather contributed reporting.
