Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
Frank Edson White
WHITE, FRANK EDSON (1873–1931), inducted 1924
F. Edson White succeeded J. Ogden Armour as President of Armour and Company in 1923. White was born in Peoria, Illinois, and attended business college. His father was a stock breeder and commission man, and White began his career in the meat packing industry employed as a traveling salesman for E. Gobel and Sons. At age twenty, he became manager of the dressed beef department at Western Meat Company of San Francisco. White left this position to work in the car route department of Armour and Company in Chicago. He rapidly progressed through various departments, encouraged by P. D. Armour Jr.—dressed beef, sheep, and the wool house. By the 1910s, F. Edson White was a director and then vice president. During World War I, all meat sales to the government and European allies were under White’s direction, and after the armistice, he was in charge of all overseas business for Armour and Company. With White as president, Armour and Company grew to 60,000 employees, 500 branch houses, and 20 packing plants. Over 15 million animals were utilized to produce over one billion dollars of food and by-products. At age fifty-seven, F. Edson White died in an accidental fall from his apartment window in 1931.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 201