Donald Edward Goerke (August 8, 1926 – January 10, 2010) was an American business executive and food developer. While working for the Franco-American division of the Campbell Soup Company in 1965, he invented SpaghettiOs, and was thereafter known as "The Daddy-O of SpaghettiOs."
Biography
Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Goerke played for the Waukesha South High School basketball team that won the Wisconsin state championship in 1944. He served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and received a bachelor's degree from Carroll College after the war. He also received an M.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin.
Goerke began his career as a market researcher for Blatz Brewery in Wisconsin.[1] He worked for the Campbell Soup Company for 35 years from 1955 until 1990.
In the early 1960s, Goerke was marketing research director of Campbell's Franco-American division when he was tasked with developing a canned pasta that would appeal to children.[2] Goerke's team reportedly considered and rejected pasta and sauce in the shapes of baseballs, cowboys, spacemen and stars.