Al Reser, CEO and Chairman of Reser's Finefood dies at 74

Al Reser, CEO and chairman of Reser's Fionefood,a philanthropist and "Beaver Believer,"died Monday night at the age of 74.

According toa statement issuedby his family on Tuesday, Reser passed away in his sleep at his Sarasota, Fla., vacation home while on a short getaway.

"Al touched the lives of anyone he met -- and thousands more through his support,"Gov. Ted Kulongoski said in a statement on Tuesday. "Al Reser was a man of great generosity, kindness and compassion."

Born in Kansas, Reser moved with his family through the Midwest during the Depression, eventually arriving in Oregon.

To make ends meet, his mother, Mildred, made potato salad in their farmhouse kitchen, while his father, Earl, sold it door-to-door to butcher shops and mom-and-pop stores.

In 1951, Mildred took her potato salad to the new Safeway in Hillsboro and asked the store if it was interested in buying it, said Kerry Tymchuk, working on a biography of Reser -- "No Small Potatoes"-- that Oregon State Press planned to publish this year.

The manager tasted the salad, Reser notes in "No Small Potatoes,"and "asked my mother a question she never expected: Could she supply potato salad to not just the Hillsboro store but to every Safeway store in Oregon?"

At age 12, Reser worked sometimes 24 hours a day to deliver his mother's potato salad fresh to grocery stores every Sunday.

"He might get by on two hours of sleep and was like that even later in life,"said Don Krahmer Sr., 78, a lifelong friend who was with Reser when he passed away. "He was easygoing, but very driven and self-disciplined."

In 1960, Reser graduated with a degree in business administration at OSU, where he met his wife, Pat. At the age of 25, he became CEO of Reser's Fine Foods and moved the company to Beaverton.

Over the next 50 years, Reser grew the company from a local business with $300,000 in annual sales to an international brand boasting $800 million in sales of its deli items such as salads, pasta, salsa and chip dips.

Today, Reser's Fine Foods Inc. employs 2,000 workers, half of which are in Oregon, and operates a dozen processing plants across the country.

"He got big, but he never got conceited,"Krahmer said. "He cared about people who really needed money. He figured that's where he came from so he always gave back."