final credits - robert e. rich sr.
Rich was the son of a Buffalo, Ohio ice cream manufacturer. He learned the business working summers at his father's plant and later owned and operated a plant of his own.
During World War II, most dairy products were being sent overseas for the war effort, creating a shortage on the home front. Rich learned about research at the George Washington Carver Institute on the use of soybeans to create food products.
Automaker Henry Ford was interested in Rich's project and invited him to inspect the company's soya-milk-making machinery. However, Ford’s cooled thoughts of a joint-venture when advisers pointed out that dairy farmers bought a lot of tractors from him.
By 1945, Rich had come up with a non-dairy whipped topping touted as better than cream because it was more stable and could be frozen.
Made with corn syrup, sugar and isolated soybean protein, Rich's Whip Topping (the "Miracle Cream from the Soya Bean") lasted longer in the refrigerator than dairy-based whipped cream and could remain frozen for more than a year without degrading. It also cost less.
Rich abandoned his family's dairy business and formed the Rich Products Corporation, later the largest family-owned frozen foods manufacturer in the United States with $2 billion in worldwide sales revenue.
Rich introduced the first commercial soy ice cream, Chil-Zert, in 1951, and one of the first non-dairy creamers, Coffee Rich, in 1960.
Rich waged many legal battles against the dairy industry over its attempts to have non-dairy products banned, with his court victories eventually legitimising non-dairy products.
Most of Rich's products are sold not under the Rich brand name but rather as part of the company's food service business, supplying breads for supermarkets, barbecued meat, frozen shrimp, cookies and pizza dough to restaurants, hospitals and schools.
Rich was one of the first four inductees in the National Frozen Food Industry Hall of Fame in 1990. He was chairman of the Buffalo Bisons, Cleveland's Triple-A baseball farm team, and oversaw construction of a baseball stadium for the team. Rich purchased the stadium's naming rights in 1972.
Rich died February 15th, 2006 at the age of 92 after a short illness.
Other innovator tributes can be found here.