final credits - daniel greenwood
Years before Ray Kroc introduced America and the world to the "Golden Arches" he was in the milkshake mixing machine business, selling mixers to mom and pop outfits across the country.
With him on the road was Daniel Greenwood.
When Kroc founded McDonald's Corporation, Greenwood was in place to fit Kroc's fast-food joints with their own soft-serve ice cream and milkshake machinery. The deal of a lifetime was sealed with a handshake.
The manufacturing business that Greenwood helped run still provides most major restaurant chains to this day with their dessert equipment.
A St. Paul, Minnesota native, Greenwood's first obsession was cars.
He was an equipment tester at the Buick Motor Division plant in Chicago between 1941 and 1945. At the age of 26, he moved to Portage, Wisconsin where he worked as a Buick dealer at Greenwood Motors from 1945 to 1951.
In 1952, Greenwood moved his family to Havana, Cuba, where he opened a business that distributed warehouse refrigeration equipment to local food processors. Among the companies he represented was Taylor Freezer.
Greenwood joined Taylor Freezer when he returned to the United States in 1954. The company eventually became the largest manufacturer of soft-serve ice cream and shake machines in the world and McDonald's became its largest customer.
Taylor Freezer was acquired by Beatrice Foods Co. in the 1960s and was then bought by Specialty Equipment Cos. in 1985. Greenwood served as Specialty Equipment's chairman from 1985 to 2000. United Technologies, who also build elevators, bought Specialty Equipment in 2000.
Daniel Greenwood died March 28th, 2006 at the age of 86 from complications related to a stroke.