Pop-Tart inventor, who grew up in GR, dies at 96
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The man behind the Pop-Tart, who grew up in Grand Rapids, has died.
William “Bill” Post died Saturday at the age of 96, according to his obituary.
Post, a child of Dutch immigrants, was raised on the south side of Grand Rapids. He graduated from Grand Rapids Christian High School, served in the Army Air Corps and spent two years at Calvin College, according to the obituary.
At 16 years old, the obituary says Post began washing trucks at Hekman Biscuit Company, later known as the Keebler Company. By 21, he worked there full time as the personnel manager. He later became the plant manager.
“Then, Kellogg’s approached us, looking for a treat that could go in the toaster,” Post said in an article for Holland Home. “Within four months, we created the Pop-Tart.”
His son, Dan Post, remembers his father asking him to be a taste-tester.
“We were the guinea pigs because he would come home every night and say, ‘Try these,’ and believe me, the first ones would not have made the market,” said Dan. “A little cardboard-like but they kept getting better.”
But Dan Post said that’s just a glimpse of who his father was.
“He was so much more than the Pop-Tart story. That’s what he’s known for in other circles, but to his friends and family, he was just sweet, old Bill,” said Dan Post. “My Dad wasn’t just my dad. Later in life, we became very good friends because when you’re as old as I am and act as young as he acted, there wasn’t much age difference. We did a lot of trips together. He especially liked to bike, so we would bike in places that were flat, like the Netherlands.”
According to the obituary, Bill Post later moved to Illinois with his family to work at Keebler’s corporate offices, retired to Glen Arbor and returned to Grand Rapids in 2003.
The obituary says Bill Post “remained a humble man of God with a servant’s heart” despite his accomplishments.
“He would be amazed at the big deal we’re making of this,” said Bill’s son, Dan Post. “He was a very humble guy.”
“(Bill Post) was asked to tell the Pop Tart story to young people in countless classrooms and always enjoyed accommodating those requests, giving his testimony of God’s goodness to ‘the son of an immigrant,’ and bringing some of his unending supply of Pop Tarts with him,” Bill Post’s obituary reads.
Bill Post leaves behind two children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who all keep a box of pop-tarts on-hand — not only as a sweet treat, but as a way to remember grandpa.
“They all have them in their cupboard because grandpa, great-grandpa for them, always had a supply of pop tarts,” said Dan Post.
In May, Netflix is set to release “Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story,” a film about the treat’s invention that stars Jerry Seinfeld.
“He knew about (the movie), people told him about it, and he said to me, ‘Have you heard that? Is that for real?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I think it is and we’re going to have to watch that,'” said Dan Post. “He just stands amazed at what has happened over the 60 years.”
— News 8’s Taylor Morris contributed to this report.
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