http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/business/william-spoor-who-turned-pillsbury-into-a-food-giant-dies-at-91.html 2014-11-22 00:11:15 William Spoor, Who Turned Pillsbury Into a Food Giant, Dies at 91 Mr. Spoor grew up in poverty and worked his way to becoming chief executive and chairman of Pillsbury, where he was known as a demanding and abrasive leader. === William Spoor, who rose from poverty to become chief executive of Pillsbury and transform it into a food products mega-company, died on Nov. 14 at his home in Salt Lake City. He was 91. His daughter Cindy Spoor confirmed his death. Mr. Spoor became Pillsbury’s chairman and chief executive in 1973. By the time he retired, in 1985, sales had jumped to $4.7 billion from $816 million, while profits had increased to $192 million from $20 million. He nurtured the company’s growth through acquiring other companies, including Green Giant frozen vegetables, Bumble Bee tuna and Häagen-Dazs ice cream. He also presided over an expansion of Burger King, which Pillsbury acquired in 1967. Pillsbury was the only corporation for which Mr. Spoor ever worked. He began climbing the ranks after graduating with a degree in history and education in 1949 from Dartmouth College, which he attended on an athletic scholarship after excelling at football and track in high school. William Howard Spoor was born in Pueblo, Colo., on Jan. 16, 1923, the son of Charles Hinchman Spoor Jr. and the former Doris Slaughter. He grew up in poverty and earned money by shoveling snow, packing groceries and selling timber he had pulled from abandoned mines. In 1942, Mr. Spoor delayed college to volunteer for the wartime Army. He served in the Army’s 10th Mountain Division for three years, training at Camp Hale in the mountains west of Denver.  After becoming chief executive of Pillsbury, he set about remaking the company. He sold off anything that was not a food enterprise, including a toilet cleaner and a magazine. Pillsbury A deal was reached in 2000 for As chief executive Mr. Spoor, who was known for his abrasive temperament, made some employees shudder. One told The Wall Street Journal that he once hid under a desk when he heard Mr. Spoor storming through the office, upset about a drop in the company’s stock price. “He was kind of a throwback to a different era,” Jack Morrison, a former Pillsbury executive who worked under Mr. Spoor, said in an interview on Thursday. “But to those of us who he thought could do a good job and could stand up to him appropriately, he was a great mentor.” In 1950 Mr. Spoor married Janet Spain, whom he had met on the Dartmouth campus on a blind date. They remained married until she died this year. “Everywhere they went, they went hand in hand,” Cindy Spoor said. In addition to his daughter, Mr. Spoor is survived by another daughter, Melanie Spoor; a son, William Lincoln Spoor; six grandchildren; and a brother, Thomas, who is known professionally as T. Richard Spoor. Mr. Spoor’s son followed him into the food business, running Krispy Kreme franchises and other ventures. He recalled a childhood of trying new products acquired by Pillsbury. When his father brought home Hungry Jack biscuits, he said, he cut a hole in one of the biscuits and made his first doughnut. William Lincoln Spoor acknowledged that his father could be demanding, at home as well as at work. But, he said, he understood why: “He was transforming a company.”