General Mills and
the Start of Betty Crocker Kitchens
Presentation to the Annandale History
Club
1994
John Holahan
After serving in the
U.S. Navy during World War II, John Holahan (1916-2000) worked for
General Mills, Inc. many years as a chemical engineer, retiring in 1978
as Vice-President of Research and New Development. John
Holahan is credited with creating Lucky Charms cereal and he also
created Total cereal. Putting
vitamins in cereal was his idea.
The Star Tribune
reported that for years he would share that story with home economics
students at Annandale Middle School. He
would recall stumbling upon orange marshmallow peanuts while
brainstorming in supermarket aisles in 1963 and taking them back to the
lab, cutting them up and then sprinkling them over Cheerios. "I
knew we had a winner," John
Holahan would say later.
John Holahan was a
former member of the Annandale Care Center Board and Annandale School
Board, of which he served as Chair. He
was a member of the Annandale Kiwanis Club and Buffalo Community
Orchestra. He
did volunteer work at Annandale Care Center and Annandale Schools.
John and his wife,
Rosalind Plant Holahan (1916-2000), lived in Minneapolis before moving
to Clearwater Lake near Annandale in 1966. They were
founding members of Friendship Ventures, Annandale, and A.R.C. of
Minnesota. The
community-minded couple died in a car-truck crash at Orono August 23,
2000.
Because John Holahan's
presentation notes are not available, two General Mills history websites
are included.
www.generalmills.com/Company/History.aspx
www.generalmills.com/media/Files/history/hist_betty.ashx
By Annandale History Club Secretary