Background

Ray Kroc was born on October 2, 1902, in Chicago, Illinois, the United States. His father, Alois "Louis" Kroc, originally from the village of Bøasy near Plzeò in Bohemia, was a man of great discipline. Employed with the telegraph company, Western Union, he rose to reach a high position in the organization. He was also a baseball fan, a craze Ray inherited from him.

His mother, Rose Mary nee Hrach, was born in Illinois. She was an affectionate lady and a homemaker. She also played the piano, earning extra money by giving lessons to children and adults. Ray also learned the piano from her, showing a natural affinity to it. As a child, his mother called Ray "Danny Dreamer" because he would daydream all the time.

He had two younger siblings; Robert and Lorraine. As children, Ray and Bob had very different inclinations and the two often found it difficult even to talk to each other. However, they came closer as they became older.

Education

From his childhood, Ray displayed a great deal of determination and confidence. He was also an intelligent, hardworking boy. While studying at Lincoln School in Oak Park, he excelled in debates, showing a knack of being able to convince people easily.

Career

Like many entrepreneurs, Kroc began working early in life. While still in grammar school, the would-be fast-food king started a lemonade stand in front of his home in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, he worked in a grocery store, and he spent a summer behind the soda fountain in his uncle's grocery store. Through these early experiences, Kroc began to view the world as one big place to sell to.

At age 15 Kroc lied about his age in order to join the Red Cross ambulance service on the front lines of World War I. He was sent to Connecticut for training, where he met fellow trainee Walt Disney, but the war ended before Kroc could be sent into service overseas.

By the time he was a teenager, Kroc had no patience for school, so he quit to take a job as a salesperson for Lily-Tulip Cup Company but soon left to become a musical director for one of Chicago's pioneer radio stations, WGES. There he played the piano, arranged the music, accompanied singers, and hired musicians. Kroc's wanderlust was not satisfied with this, and the real estate boom in Florida soon found him in Fort Lauderdale selling real estate. When the boom collapsed in 1926 Kroc was so broke that he had to play piano in a nightclub to send his wife and daughter back to Chicago by train. He later followed them in his dilapidated Model-T Ford.

Kroc thereupon returned to Lily-Tulip as a salesman, later becoming a midwestern sales manager. In 1937 he came upon a new invention, the machine that could mix five milkshakes at one time, called the "multi-mixer." Kroc founded his own company to serve as an exclusive distributor for the product in 1941.

Many years later, in 1954, Kroc heard of a drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California, owned by Richard and Maurice D. McDonald, which was operating eight of his multi-mixers. Curious as to how they could possibly use so many machines in a small establishment, Kroc found the brothers were doing a remarkable business selling only hamburgers, french fries, and milkshakes. Kroc, from his years in the paper cup and milkshake business, recognized a potential gold mine and approached the brothers about starting a franchise operation based on their restaurant, selling hamburgers for 15 cents, fries for 10 cents, and shakes for 20 cents. After some negotiation, the McDonald brothers agreed. Under the arrangement, they would receive one-half of one percent of the gross, Kroc would use the McDonald name and concept, pledged to retain high levels of quality, and would retain their symbol - the golden arches. Ray Kroc opened the first of the chain of McDonald's restaurants on April 15, 1955, in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Small by today's standards, this restaurant in Des Plaines (now the world's first "Hamburger Museum") was a little red and white tile affair where root beer was poured from a wooden barrel, potatoes were peeled in the restaurant, and there were local supplies of fresh hamburger meat. The symbol, now long forgotten, was Speedee, a hamburger-bun-faced creature. On that first day, Kroc's restaurant had sales of $366.12.

By 1959, McDonald's had opened restaurant No. 100, but Kroc still wasn't reaping significant profits. Following the advice of Harry J. Sonneborn, who became McDonald’s Corp.'s first president, Kroc set up a system in which the company purchased and leased land to new franchises. Sonneborn also helped secure a $2.7 million loan that enabled Kroc to purchase the company outright from the McDonald brothers. By 1961 there were over 130 outlets, and in that year Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. From these humble beginnings emerged an empire which by 1984 had 8,300 restaurants in 34 countries with sales of more than $10 billion. By the end of 1963, the company had sold more than one billion hamburgers, an achievement proudly advertised beneath its restaurants’ trademark "golden arches."

Ray Kroc revolutionized the restaurant industry in much the same way that Henry Ford transformed the automobile industry a generation earlier. Kroc's great contribution was to figure out how to mass-produce food uniformly in astounding quantities and then to convince millions of Americans that they needed to buy this food. To accomplish the first objective, Kroc reduced the food business to a science. Nothing was left to chance in the logistics of the McDonald's operations, which were carefully researched by sophisticated methods. The precision of the operation can be appreciated when it is understood that each McDonald's hamburger was made with a 1.6-ounce beef patty, not more than 18.9 percent fat. It is exactly .221 inches thick and 3.875 inches wide. All other aspects of the operation are equally rigidly controlled. Kroc also relentlessly stressed quality, banning from his hamburgers such filler materials as soybeans.

The other side of McDonald's success story is franchising, marketing, and advertising. Three-quarters of McDonald's restaurants are run by franchise-holders. By 1985 each franchise cost about $250,000 and ran for 20 years, after which it reverted to the company. When choosing franchise-holders, Kroc always looked for someone good with people. As he said," … we'd rather get a salesman than an accountant or even a chef." The franchise owners were then intensely trained at McDonald's "Hamburger University" in Elk Grove, Illinois, where a training course led to a "Bachelor in Hamburgerology with a minor in french fries." The company also provided a lengthy manual that outlined every aspect of the operation, from how to make a milkshake to how to be responsive to the community. The capstone of the McDonald's operation, however, was advertising. Hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into advertising - to the point where the head of another fast-food company said in 1978 that consumers were "so preconditioned by McDonald's advertising blanket that the hamburger would taste good even if they left the meat out."

Despite its astounding success, and despite the fact that the company worked hard to project a charitable and community-oriented image, McDonald's came under attack on several fronts. A number of communities refused to allow its restaurants in their area, seeing it (as one commented) as a "symbol of the asphalt and chrome culture." The company was also criticized for its extensive use of part-time teenaged help, and especially for the $200,000 which Kroc donated to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign since the administration soon after recommended amending the minimum wage law to provide for a "youth differential." This would have allowed employers to hire teenagers at 80 percent of the minimum wage. The architecture of the buildings and the nutritional content of the food was assailed, although nutritionist Jean Mayer said that as "a weekend treat, it is clean and fast."

In 1977, after stepping down from his position as the Chairman of the Board, Kroc turned his attention to baseball. Kroc bought the San Diego Padres. He had less success at this, however, and in 1979 gave up operating control of the team, saying with his typical crustiness, "there's a lot more future in hamburgers than in baseball. Baseball isn't baseball anymore."

Achievements

• 

  Ray Kroc brought a revolution in the fast-food industry, making McDonald’s the biggest fast-food chain in the world. Ray Kroc did not invent McDonald’s; he reinvented it, and their restaurants and re-inventions brought about a great change in the food industry. McDonald’s touched and improved lives and became the first job for many young individuals.
  
  Ray Kroc is known to make a number of innovations in the foodservice industry. Most important among them was that he offered single-store franchises instead of a territorial franchise as was the practice in those days. Another of his innovative idea was to set up Hamburger University in Oak Brook, in the western suburb of Chicago.
  
  In 1972, Ray Kroc received the Horatio Alger Award from the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans for his dedication and honesty. Ray Kroc eas named one of the "100 most important Americans of the 20th century" by Life Magazine. At the time of Kroc’s death, his personal fortune was estimated to be $500 million and McDonald’s was taking in $8 billion, globally, per year.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's 1977

Politics

Kroc was a lifelong Republican. When Richard Nixon vetoed a minimum wage bill that was passing through Congress, Kroc was embroiled in controversy as many accused him of influencing the president with his money. Kroc had contributed $255,000 to Nixon’s reelection campaign before the bill came across the president’s desk.

Views

During his lifetime Kroc was an active supporter of numerous charitable organizations. Even though he didn’t believe in social welfare programs, Kroc still tried to support the causes he believed in. He set up The Kroc Foundation in order to combat diabetes, alcoholism, and multiple sclerosis, among other medical conditions. He was a major donor to the Dartmouth Medical School. Over the years, the corporation also donated food and money to many charities, and the company encouraged local franchisees to get involved in their communities. McDonald's best-known charitable effort is the Ronald McDonald Houses, homes near hospitals where families can stay for free while their children receive medical treatment.

After his death, his third wife, Joan, carried on his charitable work. She donated tens of millions of dollars to San Diego organizations, and in 1995 she gave $50 million to the Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, which had been founded in Kroc's honor.

Quotations: "Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get."

"If you work just for money, you'll never make it, but if you love what you're doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours."

"I have always believed that each man makes his own happiness and is responsible for his own problems.… It follows, obviously, that a man must take advantage of any opportunity that comes along."

"The key to success is being in the right place at the right time, recognizing that you are there, and taking action!"

"If I had a brick for every time I’ve repeated the phrase Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, I think I’d probably be able to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with them."

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

Personality

Ray always showcased a certain amount of enthusiasm for the things he liked. He took to the piano naturally, and so while still in his formative years, he learned to play from his mother. He also shared a craze for baseball and attended many matches with his father.

Kroc cut a commanding figure, his thin hair brushed straight back, his custom blazers impeccable, the bulky rings on his fingers glinting as he ate his hamburgers with both hands. Aware of his abrasiveness, he once commented: "I guess to be an entrepreneur you have to have a large ego, enormous pride, and an ability to inspire others to follow your lead."

Kroc refused to hire any businessmen who had a Master of Business Administration degree. He believed that college degrees did not teach proper competitive spirit and those who attended university were missing a certain marketing finesse.

Physical Characteristics: Kroc suffered from diabetes and arthritis. He was also an alcoholic. In 1980, after suffering a stroke, he was admitted to a rehabilitation center for his alcoholism. Though his actions and movements were restricted due to being in a wheelchair, he still always gave first preference to McDonald’s and never stopped working till the last day.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Columbus discovered America, Jefferson invented it and Ray Kroc Big Mac’D it" - Tom Robbins
  
  "Ray touched us. He had a rare capacity to bring out the best in us. Ray taught us. He taught us to be diligent, to apply ourselves, to raise our self-expectations, to be enthusiastic about our endeavors, to have pride, and to waste not. Ray gave us an example. He gave us an example to be generous, to be thoughtful to others, to be fair-minded, to have balance, to do nothing in excess. We admire his entrepreneurship, his competitiveness, his integrity. We loved his personality, his openness and inherent honesty, and his spontaneity…" - Fred Turner

Interests

• playing the piano

• Politicians

  Richard Nixon

• Sport & Clubs

  baseball, San Diego Padres

Connections

In 1922, Ray Kroc married his high school sweetheart Ethel Fleming. They had a daughter named Marilyn Kroc. The couple divorced in 1961. In 1963, he married Jane Dobbins Green, a secretary. The marriage ended in divorce in 1968.

In 1969, he married Joan Beverly Smith. They first met in 1957. They carried on a secret relationship for years before they could divorce their respective spouses and get married.

Father:

Alois "Louis" Kroc

Mother:

Rose Mary (Hrach) Kroc

Spouse:

Joan Beverly Mansfield Kroc

Ray Kroc met his future wife and McDonald’s heiress, Joan Kroc (née Mansfield) one day at a restaurant where she was playing the organ for customer entertainment. Kroc, a pianist himself, was enamored by Joan, not only because was she beautiful, but also because of her amazing ability as an organist. However, Joan was married to another restaurateur at the time who, in a twist of fate, actually bought a McDonald’s franchisee himself. It would be 12 years before Ray and Joan finally got together - but they would remain married until Kroc’s death in 1984.

ex-spouse:

Ethel Janet Fleming Kroc

As a man obsessed with work, Kroc’s relationship with his family was strained. His first wife opposed his decision to sell milkshake machines, and after he joined the McDonald’s operation his obsession only intensified. This led to his wife divorcing him in 1961, which also happened to be the year that he bought out the McDonald brothers’ stakes in the company for $2.7 million.

After his divorce from Ethel, Kroc made a deal to give her just about everything he had, including $30,000 a year in alimony, the house, the car - all but his stake in McDonald’s.

Daughter:

Marilyn Janet Kroc Barg

ex-spouse:

Jane Dobbins Green

Acquaintance:

Walt Disney

While training for the Red Cross, Ray Kroc met another soon-to-be-famous native of Illinois: Walt Disney. Coincidentally, Disney had also lied about his age to serve in the War. Though they worked together in Ambulance Company A, they wouldn’t keep in touch after arriving back to the United States.

That is until Kroc contacted Disney three decades later and asked him to put a McDonald’s in a Disney Theme park - an offer which Disney would decline, though the restaurant would eventually arrive in the Happiest Place On Earth a few decades later.

References

• Leadership Lessons: Warren Buffett, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Katharine Graham, Steve Jobs, and Ray Kroc
• Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away
• Ray Kroc: 10 Leadership Lessons from Ray Kroc's Life: Improve your Charisma, Inspire Yourself and Motivate People with 10 Principles of One of the Most ... History
• Ray Kroc: McDonald's Restaurants Builder
• Ray Kroc