Margaret Rudkin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Margaret Rudkin (née Fogarty) (September 14, 1897 - June 1, 1967) of Fairfield, Connecticut was the founder of Pepperidge Farm.

Born in New York City, she was the eldest of five children of Joseph and Margaret "Healey" Fogarty. She was taught to cook by her grandmother, who started her off with cakes and biscuits. She moved to Long Island when she was 12. She graduated valedictorian from her high school; worked as a teller in a bank, and in 1919 got a job with McClure Jones and Co., where she met her future husband. She married Henry Albert Rudkin on April 8, 1923, and together they had three sons. In 1926 they purchased land in Fairfield, built a home and called the estate Pepperidge Farm after the pepperidge tree "Nyssa sylvatica". Although fairly well off, they suffered somewhat during the Great Depression and made ends meet by selling apples and turkeys.

Her youngest son, Mark (b. 1929), developed asthma and became allergic to store-bought breads. Rudkin developed a bread [a version of her grandmother's recipe] which her son could eat and which also tasted good. The boy's doctor encouraged her to bake more bread for his other patients. This she did, and then expanded to selling the bread to the local store. In time she further expanded to sell the bread to a health food store in New York.

Within three years the endeavor had outgrown the farm and a bakery was opened in Norwalk in 1940. Although World War II caused problems due to rationing, the bakery was producing 50,000 loaves a week in 1941.

By 1950 Rudkin was appearing in commercials on television. At the same time, under her management the bakery was expanding into other products, including the Goldfish snack. In 1961 she sold the business to the Campbell Soup Company and became a director of that company.

Although having sold Pepperidge Farm, she still ran the company until her retirement in 1966. Margaret Rudkin died in 1967 at the age of 69.