W. K. Kellogg: Founder of the Kellogg Company
Business Owner · Food & Beverage
W. K. Kellogg began by selling brooms in Battle Creek, helped manage his brother's sanitarium and founded the Kellogg Company, then endowed the Kellogg Foundation with $66 million in 1934.
About W. K. Kellogg: Founder of the Kellogg Company
Will Keith Kellogg (born William Keith Kellogg on April 7, 1860; died October 6, 1951) was an American industrialist in food manufacturing who founded the Kellogg Company, maker of a wide variety of popular breakfast cereals. A member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he practiced vegetarianism as a dietary principle taught by his church. He also founded the Kellogg Arabian Ranch, which breeds Arabian horses, and as a philanthropist started the Kellogg Foundation in 1934 with a $66 million donation. As a young businessman Kellogg started out selling brooms in his hometown of Battle Creek, Michigan. In December 1878 he was hired by George H. King, at the urging of Elder James Springer White, to help run his new broom factory in Dallas, Texas. In November 1879 he returned home to help his brother John Harvey Kellogg manage the Battle Creek Sanitarium, originally the Western Health Reform Institute, part of a pioneering effort based on the health principles advocated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Kellogg family is of paternal English descent, traceable to three brothers of Braintree, Essex, who emigrated to the Connecticut Colony. Sources: English Wikipedia (W. K. Kellogg, accessed September 2026).
Basic Information
Founder, Kellogg Company; founder, W. K. Kellogg Foundation (1860-1951)
Company Details
Kellogg Company
Breakfast Cereal, Food Manufacturing