James Marker (June 27, 1921 – May 2, 2012) was an American-born Canadian businessman who invented Cheezies, a brand of cheese curl

snack food A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

popular in Canada. Marker also established the Belleville Aerodrome, a private airport, in 1961. Marker was born in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

. Marker, who was originally a farmer, worked within the confectionery industry in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, for many years. However, Marker invented a new machine used to process

cornmeal Maize meal is a meal (coarse flour) ground from dried maize. It is a common staple food and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but it is not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', Third Editi ...

. The machine caught the attention of Marker's

business partner A business partner is a commercial entity with which another commercial entity has some form of alliance. This relationship may be a contractual, exclusive bond in which both entities commit not to ally with third parties. Alternatively, it may be ...

, W. T. Hawkins. Together, Marker and Hawkins moved to Canada and founded the W. T. Hawkin Company in 1949, which manufactures the Cheezies snack. Marker and Hawkin originally started their new company in

Tweed, Ontario Tweed is a municipality located in central-eastern Ontario, Canada, in Hastings County. History The Municipality of Tweed is an amalgamation (politics), amalgamated municipality comprising the former Tweed, Ontario (village), Village of Tweed a ...

, to take advantage of the areas railroads to ship their Cheezies. A fire destroyed their original Tweed factory in 1956, and they relocated to their company's current location in

Belleville, Ontario Belleville is a city in Ontario, Canada, situated on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, located at the mouth of the Moira River and on the Bay of Quinte. Its population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 55,071 (Census Metropolitan Area population 1 ...

. They concentrated exclusively on Cheezies after dropping other snack foods from their portfolio. Marker designed the machine used to create Cheezies, which shaped the snacks, cooked them in

vegetable shortening Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and is used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. The idea of shortening dates back to at least the 18th century, well before the invention of modern, shelf-stable vegetable s ...

, and coated the snacks with aged cheddar. No two Cheezies pieces are exactly alike. Marker's original machine is still used to manufacture Cheezies at the company's plant, as of 2012. Marker remained Vice President of the W. T. Hawkin Company until his death in 2012. He last visited the Cheezies factory for a surprise inspection in March 2012.Outside of the snack food industry, Marker established the Belleville Aerodrome in Ontario in 1961 and in 1972 established a flying school and air charter business, Loyal Air Ltd. He frequently used the airport to fly his Apache plane. Marker died on May 2, 2012, at his home in

, at the age of 90. The W. T. Hawkin's Cheezies factory closed for the remainder of the day upon news of Marker's death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marker, James 1921 births 2012 deaths Canadian food industry businesspeople Canadian inventors American emigrants to Canada Businesspeople from Belleville, Ontario