Peter Folger (December 26, 1905 – August 27, 1980) was an American coffee heir,

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having tradit ...

, and member of the prominent United States Folger family. He was also the longtime chairman of the board and president of the Folgers Coffee Company. He was the son of James Athearn Folger, Jr. (born c. 1864) and wife Clare Luning and paternal grandson of founder J. A. Folger, and the father of Abigail Folger, who was killed in the notorious Tate-Labianca murders in 1969 at the age of 25.

Early life

Born and raised in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

to James Athern Folger Jr. and Clara Eugenia Luning, Folger studied business and graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

where he was an athlete on their football,

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

, and polo teams. Peter Folger later served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

as a Marine Major.

Business

In 1963, after having helped to build the family firm into the third largest coffee wholesaler in the United States, Folger sold the company to

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

for 1,650,000 shares of P&G

common stock Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Com ...

. However, he and the Folger family continued to operate Folgers as a P&G subsidiary.

Personal life

He married twice, first to Inés Mejía (1907–2007), the daughter of Encarnacion Mejía, the

consul general A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

for

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by ...

, and wife Gertrude Guirola, sister of Edwin Mejía (b. 1897), and member of a prestigious California

land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

family hailing from San Salvador. They went on to have two children, Abigail Anne (b. 1943) and Peter Jr. (b. 1945). Inés filed for divorce which was granted in 1952. They shared joint custody of their two children. On June 30, 1960, Peter married his secretary Beverly Mater (b. 1935). They had one daughter together, Elizabeth, in January 1961. Peter and Beverly lived with their daughter at the Folger mansion located in Woodside, California until 1974 when they moved to a newly built home on Roberta Drive. The murder of his eldest daughter, Abigail Anne, in Los Angeles, California, on August 9, 1969, was said to have lessened Peter's desire to continue living at the Woodside estate, where she grew up.

Death

Folger died from

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that su ...

at his home in Woodside, California, at the age of 74 on August 27, 1980, and was buried in the Folger family plot at Mountain View Cemetery, in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. He was survived by his wife, Beverly, who did not remarry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Folger, Peter 1905 births 1980 deaths American socialites American drink industry businesspeople Burials at Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California) Businesspeople in coffee Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Yale Bulldogs football players Yale Bulldogs men's track and field athletes Deaths from prostate cancer Deaths from cancer in California 20th-century American businesspeople People from Woodside, California