Robert O. Peterson, Founder of Oscar's & Jack in the Box Restaurants, Dies
SAN DIEGO — Robert Oscar Peterson, a plain-spoken, take-charge entrepreneur who founded the Jack in the Box restaurant chain and was a major benefactor for the arts, higher education and liberal political causes, died Tuesday night at age 78.
Peterson's wife, former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor, was at his bedside at their home in Point Loma when he died. He had fought leukemia for more than a decade.
"He did a lot of good in this world," said Peterson's longtime friend and attorney, Robert Ballantyne. "When he had an idea, he didn't waste a lot of time discussing it. He just went ahead and did it."
A native San Diegan, Peterson was the son of a salesman for a milk and ice cream company [Oscar W Peterson and Wilma M Burge]. His talents as an organizer and promoter became apparent when he attended San Diego State College.
Peterson founded the Collegiate Club to hold dances at Balboa Park on Friday nights and was helped by fellow students Art Linkletter, Faye Emerson and Gregory Peck. The profits allowed Peterson to pay his college expenses.
For a time in the 1950's, the Collegiate Club of San Diego held Saturday night dances for high school, junior college, and college students in the building. Between dances, couples relaxed in the 1935 Hall of Youth whose walls had been adorned with paintings lent by the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery.
Later, he was a traveling salesman for a company that sold milkshake mixers. He founded Topsy's drive-in restaurant in San Diego in 1941 and served as a lieutenant in naval intelligence during World War II.
After the war, Topsy's became Oscar's (named for his father - Oscar W. Peterson) and Peterson pioneered the concept of the "drive-through," where patrons drove away as soon as their food arrived. The idea was to make a fortune for Peterson and revolutionize the fast-food industry and the American way of eating.
In 1950 he started his first Jack in the Box restaurant and expanded the drive-through idea to include a speaker hidden inside a brightly colored plastic clown.
Because patrons did not linger, the restaurants enjoyed high volume sales and prices could be kept low. He resisted unionization but installed a profit-sharing plan for employees.
By 1967, when Peterson sold the chain to Ralston-Purina, there were 300 Jack in the Box restaurants and the drive-through idea had become an industry standard.
From hamburgers, he branched out to banking, hotels, philanthropy and civic improvement.
Although studiously avoiding publicity, he was one of a handful of civic-minded businessmen who transformed San Diego from a Navy town where the power structure was clubby and predominantly Republican and the economy was perilously dependent on military spending.
He backed reformist political candidates and greatly expanded activities to market San Diego worldwide as a vacation spot. He founded a fund-raising group that aggressively tapped private and public sources to bolster museums, theaters and individual artists.
His penchant for change, and his lack of tact in accomplishing it, earned him the enmity of some in the city's business community. "The Establishment hates me because they don't like the boat rocked," Peterson said in an interview with The Times in 1982.
A registered Republican, he nonetheless supported Alan Cranston, George S. McGovern, Frank Church and the presidential campaign of Edward M. Kennedy. For his fund-raising efforts on behalf of those and other Democrats, he was named to the "enemies list" compiled by the Administration of President Richard Nixon.
Although Peterson was a supporter and contributor for three decades, Cranston said he never asked for a political favor or tried to influence a vote. He was, however, blunt when asked his opinion.
"If you made a suggestion that he didn't like, he'd say, 'Hell no, that's the wrong thing to do,' " Cranston said.
Peterson received the City of Paris Medal of Honor for his contributions to the arts. President Lyndon Johnson named him chairman of a small business advisory committee and a lecture hall was named in his honor at UC San Diego in appreciation of his contributions.
With world-renowned fabric designer Jack Lenor Larsen, Peterson founded the New York-based American Crafts Council to promote folk art. He was also a collector with a taste for sculpture and post-Impressionist painting.
In 1977, Peterson married O'Connor, 30 years his junior, who was then finishing her second term on the San Diego City Council. Peterson's three earlier marriages had ended in divorce.
A shrewd businessman and tough negotiator, Peterson purchased and renovated hotels such as the historic Mendocino Hotel. "He loved making deals," Larsen said. "I think that's what kept him going when he got so sick."
In his 1982 interview, one of the few he granted, Peterson said: "I don't ever want to be bored and don't think I ever can be. There's too much in this world and so damn little time to know it."
Survivors include three sons, Gary, Cris and Patrick, and a daughter, Jan Alldredge, all from his marriage to Lorraine Bhalla.
Funeral services are pending.
Source: April 20, 1994|TONY PERRY | LA TIMES STAFF WRITER
_________________________
Peterson was a native San Diegan, the son of Oscar W. Peterson and Wilma M Burge.
Robert graduated from Hoover High School in 1933, attended San Diego State College and graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics. He was a naval intelligence officer during World War II. He was married four times, notably (in 1977) to Maureen O'Connor, who went on to become the first female mayor of San Diego from 1985 to 1992; this was his only marriage not to end in divorce. The former mayor was at his side when he died in 1994. He had four children by his previous marriage to Lorraine Bhalla, none of whom went into the restaurant business.
Peterson entered the restaurant business in 1941 with a drive-in diner called "Topsy's" (later renamed "Oscar's"), located at 6270 El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego. This was a classic drive-in where food was served by carhops to patrons in the parking lot. Over the next decade his company, the San Diego Commissary Company, operated several Topsy's and Oscar's restaurants throughout San Diego, including a flagship Oscar's at Midway Drive and Rosecrans Street in the Midway area. In 1951, he converted the Oscar's on El Cajon Boulevard into the first Jack in the Box, a drive-through with the innovation of a two-way intercom that allowed one car to place an order while another car was being served. Other restaurants had previously offered drive-up window service, but Jack in the Box was the first major chain to make drive-through windows the focus of its operation. Since the concept was unfamiliar to most customers, the speaker (topped with the trademark clown) had a sign that announced "Pull forward, Jack will speak to you!"
The Jack in the Box restaurant was conceived as a "modern food machine" and was designed by La Jolla master architect Russell Forester, who also designed Peterson's landmark home in Point Loma in 1965.
Peterson built the chain to over 300 locations. He renamed his company Foodmaker in 1960 and sold it in 1967 to Ralston-Purina. By that time, the "drive-thru" concept had become an industry standard.
He spent the final 30 years of his life in philanthropy and civic improvement. He was a consistent patron of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sponsoring research for many years, and donating the 96-foot diesel yacht Dolphin to the institution in 1973. Peterson Hall at the University of California, San Diego is named after him.
In 1984, he was diagnosed with leukemia. He battled the disease for the next 10 years until his death in 1994 at the age of 78.
Source: Wikipedia
Military Information: LT, US NAVY
SAN DIEGO — Robert Oscar Peterson, a plain-spoken, take-charge entrepreneur who founded the Jack in the Box restaurant chain and was a major benefactor for the arts, higher education and liberal political causes, died Tuesday night at age 78.
Peterson's wife, former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor, was at his bedside at their home in Point Loma when he died. He had fought leukemia for more than a decade.
"He did a lot of good in this world," said Peterson's longtime friend and attorney, Robert Ballantyne. "When he had an idea, he didn't waste a lot of time discussing it. He just went ahead and did it."
A native San Diegan, Peterson was the son of a salesman for a milk and ice cream company [Oscar W Peterson and Wilma M Burge]. His talents as an organizer and promoter became apparent when he attended San Diego State College.
Peterson founded the Collegiate Club to hold dances at Balboa Park on Friday nights and was helped by fellow students Art Linkletter, Faye Emerson and Gregory Peck. The profits allowed Peterson to pay his college expenses.
For a time in the 1950's, the Collegiate Club of San Diego held Saturday night dances for high school, junior college, and college students in the building. Between dances, couples relaxed in the 1935 Hall of Youth whose walls had been adorned with paintings lent by the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery.
Later, he was a traveling salesman for a company that sold milkshake mixers. He founded Topsy's drive-in restaurant in San Diego in 1941 and served as a lieutenant in naval intelligence during World War II.
After the war, Topsy's became Oscar's (named for his father - Oscar W. Peterson) and Peterson pioneered the concept of the "drive-through," where patrons drove away as soon as their food arrived. The idea was to make a fortune for Peterson and revolutionize the fast-food industry and the American way of eating.
In 1950 he started his first Jack in the Box restaurant and expanded the drive-through idea to include a speaker hidden inside a brightly colored plastic clown.
Because patrons did not linger, the restaurants enjoyed high volume sales and prices could be kept low. He resisted unionization but installed a profit-sharing plan for employees.
By 1967, when Peterson sold the chain to Ralston-Purina, there were 300 Jack in the Box restaurants and the drive-through idea had become an industry standard.
From hamburgers, he branched out to banking, hotels, philanthropy and civic improvement.
Although studiously avoiding publicity, he was one of a handful of civic-minded businessmen who transformed San Diego from a Navy town where the power structure was clubby and predominantly Republican and the economy was perilously dependent on military spending.
He backed reformist political candidates and greatly expanded activities to market San Diego worldwide as a vacation spot. He founded a fund-raising group that aggressively tapped private and public sources to bolster museums, theaters and individual artists.
His penchant for change, and his lack of tact in accomplishing it, earned him the enmity of some in the city's business community. "The Establishment hates me because they don't like the boat rocked," Peterson said in an interview with The Times in 1982.
A registered Republican, he nonetheless supported Alan Cranston, George S. McGovern, Frank Church and the presidential campaign of Edward M. Kennedy. For his fund-raising efforts on behalf of those and other Democrats, he was named to the "enemies list" compiled by the Administration of President Richard Nixon.
Although Peterson was a supporter and contributor for three decades, Cranston said he never asked for a political favor or tried to influence a vote. He was, however, blunt when asked his opinion.
"If you made a suggestion that he didn't like, he'd say, 'Hell no, that's the wrong thing to do,' " Cranston said.
Peterson received the City of Paris Medal of Honor for his contributions to the arts. President Lyndon Johnson named him chairman of a small business advisory committee and a lecture hall was named in his honor at UC San Diego in appreciation of his contributions.
With world-renowned fabric designer Jack Lenor Larsen, Peterson founded the New York-based American Crafts Council to promote folk art. He was also a collector with a taste for sculpture and post-Impressionist painting.
In 1977, Peterson married O'Connor, 30 years his junior, who was then finishing her second term on the San Diego City Council. Peterson's three earlier marriages had ended in divorce.
A shrewd businessman and tough negotiator, Peterson purchased and renovated hotels such as the historic Mendocino Hotel. "He loved making deals," Larsen said. "I think that's what kept him going when he got so sick."
In his 1982 interview, one of the few he granted, Peterson said: "I don't ever want to be bored and don't think I ever can be. There's too much in this world and so damn little time to know it."
Survivors include three sons, Gary, Cris and Patrick, and a daughter, Jan Alldredge, all from his marriage to Lorraine Bhalla.
Funeral services are pending.
Source: April 20, 1994|TONY PERRY | LA TIMES STAFF WRITER
_________________________
Peterson was a native San Diegan, the son of Oscar W. Peterson and Wilma M Burge.
Robert graduated from Hoover High School in 1933, attended San Diego State College and graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics. He was a naval intelligence officer during World War II. He was married four times, notably (in 1977) to Maureen O'Connor, who went on to become the first female mayor of San Diego from 1985 to 1992; this was his only marriage not to end in divorce. The former mayor was at his side when he died in 1994. He had four children by his previous marriage to Lorraine Bhalla, none of whom went into the restaurant business.
Peterson entered the restaurant business in 1941 with a drive-in diner called "Topsy's" (later renamed "Oscar's"), located at 6270 El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego. This was a classic drive-in where food was served by carhops to patrons in the parking lot. Over the next decade his company, the San Diego Commissary Company, operated several Topsy's and Oscar's restaurants throughout San Diego, including a flagship Oscar's at Midway Drive and Rosecrans Street in the Midway area. In 1951, he converted the Oscar's on El Cajon Boulevard into the first Jack in the Box, a drive-through with the innovation of a two-way intercom that allowed one car to place an order while another car was being served. Other restaurants had previously offered drive-up window service, but Jack in the Box was the first major chain to make drive-through windows the focus of its operation. Since the concept was unfamiliar to most customers, the speaker (topped with the trademark clown) had a sign that announced "Pull forward, Jack will speak to you!"
The Jack in the Box restaurant was conceived as a "modern food machine" and was designed by La Jolla master architect Russell Forester, who also designed Peterson's landmark home in Point Loma in 1965.
Peterson built the chain to over 300 locations. He renamed his company Foodmaker in 1960 and sold it in 1967 to Ralston-Purina. By that time, the "drive-thru" concept had become an industry standard.
He spent the final 30 years of his life in philanthropy and civic improvement. He was a consistent patron of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sponsoring research for many years, and donating the 96-foot diesel yacht Dolphin to the institution in 1973. Peterson Hall at the University of California, San Diego is named after him.
In 1984, he was diagnosed with leukemia. He battled the disease for the next 10 years until his death in 1994 at the age of 78.
Source: Wikipedia
Military Information: LT, US NAVY
Robert O. Peterson, Founder of Oscar's & Jack in the Box Restaurants, Dies
SAN DIEGO — Robert Oscar Peterson, a plain-spoken, take-charge entrepreneur who founded the Jack in the Box restaurant chain and was a major benefactor for the arts, higher education and liberal political causes, died Tuesday night at age 78.
Peterson's wife, former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor, was at his bedside at their home in Point Loma when he died. He had fought leukemia for more than a decade.
"He did a lot of good in this world," said Peterson's longtime friend and attorney, Robert Ballantyne. "When he had an idea, he didn't waste a lot of time discussing it. He just went ahead and did it."
A native San Diegan, Peterson was the son of a salesman for a milk and ice cream company [Oscar W Peterson and Wilma M Burge]. His talents as an organizer and promoter became apparent when he attended San Diego State College.
Peterson founded the Collegiate Club to hold dances at Balboa Park on Friday nights and was helped by fellow students Art Linkletter, Faye Emerson and Gregory Peck. The profits allowed Peterson to pay his college expenses.
For a time in the 1950's, the Collegiate Club of San Diego held Saturday night dances for high school, junior college, and college students in the building. Between dances, couples relaxed in the 1935 Hall of Youth whose walls had been adorned with paintings lent by the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery.
Later, he was a traveling salesman for a company that sold milkshake mixers. He founded Topsy's drive-in restaurant in San Diego in 1941 and served as a lieutenant in naval intelligence during World War II.
After the war, Topsy's became Oscar's (named for his father - Oscar W. Peterson) and Peterson pioneered the concept of the "drive-through," where patrons drove away as soon as their food arrived. The idea was to make a fortune for Peterson and revolutionize the fast-food industry and the American way of eating.
In 1950 he started his first Jack in the Box restaurant and expanded the drive-through idea to include a speaker hidden inside a brightly colored plastic clown.
Because patrons did not linger, the restaurants enjoyed high volume sales and prices could be kept low. He resisted unionization but installed a profit-sharing plan for employees.
By 1967, when Peterson sold the chain to Ralston-Purina, there were 300 Jack in the Box restaurants and the drive-through idea had become an industry standard.
From hamburgers, he branched out to banking, hotels, philanthropy and civic improvement.
Although studiously avoiding publicity, he was one of a handful of civic-minded businessmen who transformed San Diego from a Navy town where the power structure was clubby and predominantly Republican and the economy was perilously dependent on military spending.
He backed reformist political candidates and greatly expanded activities to market San Diego worldwide as a vacation spot. He founded a fund-raising group that aggressively tapped private and public sources to bolster museums, theaters and individual artists.
His penchant for change, and his lack of tact in accomplishing it, earned him the enmity of some in the city's business community. "The Establishment hates me because they don't like the boat rocked," Peterson said in an interview with The Times in 1982.
A registered Republican, he nonetheless supported Alan Cranston, George S. McGovern, Frank Church and the presidential campaign of Edward M. Kennedy. For his fund-raising efforts on behalf of those and other Democrats, he was named to the "enemies list" compiled by the Administration of President Richard Nixon.
Although Peterson was a supporter and contributor for three decades, Cranston said he never asked for a political favor or tried to influence a vote. He was, however, blunt when asked his opinion.
"If you made a suggestion that he didn't like, he'd say, 'Hell no, that's the wrong thing to do,' " Cranston said.
Peterson received the City of Paris Medal of Honor for his contributions to the arts. President Lyndon Johnson named him chairman of a small business advisory committee and a lecture hall was named in his honor at UC San Diego in appreciation of his contributions.
With world-renowned fabric designer Jack Lenor Larsen, Peterson founded the New York-based American Crafts Council to promote folk art. He was also a collector with a taste for sculpture and post-Impressionist painting.
In 1977, Peterson married O'Connor, 30 years his junior, who was then finishing her second term on the San Diego City Council. Peterson's three earlier marriages had ended in divorce.
A shrewd businessman and tough negotiator, Peterson purchased and renovated hotels such as the historic Mendocino Hotel. "He loved making deals," Larsen said. "I think that's what kept him going when he got so sick."
In his 1982 interview, one of the few he granted, Peterson said: "I don't ever want to be bored and don't think I ever can be. There's too much in this world and so damn little time to know it."
Survivors include three sons, Gary, Cris and Patrick, and a daughter, Jan Alldredge, all from his marriage to Lorraine Bhalla.
Funeral services are pending.
Source: April 20, 1994|TONY PERRY | LA TIMES STAFF WRITER
_________________________
Peterson was a native San Diegan, the son of Oscar W. Peterson and Wilma M Burge.
Robert graduated from Hoover High School in 1933, attended San Diego State College and graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics. He was a naval intelligence officer during World War II. He was married four times, notably (in 1977) to Maureen O'Connor, who went on to become the first female mayor of San Diego from 1985 to 1992; this was his only marriage not to end in divorce. The former mayor was at his side when he died in 1994. He had four children by his previous marriage to Lorraine Bhalla, none of whom went into the restaurant business.
Peterson entered the restaurant business in 1941 with a drive-in diner called "Topsy's" (later renamed "Oscar's"), located at 6270 El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego. This was a classic drive-in where food was served by carhops to patrons in the parking lot. Over the next decade his company, the San Diego Commissary Company, operated several Topsy's and Oscar's restaurants throughout San Diego, including a flagship Oscar's at Midway Drive and Rosecrans Street in the Midway area. In 1951, he converted the Oscar's on El Cajon Boulevard into the first Jack in the Box, a drive-through with the innovation of a two-way intercom that allowed one car to place an order while another car was being served. Other restaurants had previously offered drive-up window service, but Jack in the Box was the first major chain to make drive-through windows the focus of its operation. Since the concept was unfamiliar to most customers, the speaker (topped with the trademark clown) had a sign that announced "Pull forward, Jack will speak to you!"
The Jack in the Box restaurant was conceived as a "modern food machine" and was designed by La Jolla master architect Russell Forester, who also designed Peterson's landmark home in Point Loma in 1965.
Peterson built the chain to over 300 locations. He renamed his company Foodmaker in 1960 and sold it in 1967 to Ralston-Purina. By that time, the "drive-thru" concept had become an industry standard.
He spent the final 30 years of his life in philanthropy and civic improvement. He was a consistent patron of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sponsoring research for many years, and donating the 96-foot diesel yacht Dolphin to the institution in 1973. Peterson Hall at the University of California, San Diego is named after him.
In 1984, he was diagnosed with leukemia. He battled the disease for the next 10 years until his death in 1994 at the age of 78.
Source: Wikipedia
Military Information: LT, US NAVY
SAN DIEGO — Robert Oscar Peterson, a plain-spoken, take-charge entrepreneur who founded the Jack in the Box restaurant chain and was a major benefactor for the arts, higher education and liberal political causes, died Tuesday night at age 78.
Peterson's wife, former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor, was at his bedside at their home in Point Loma when he died. He had fought leukemia for more than a decade.
"He did a lot of good in this world," said Peterson's longtime friend and attorney, Robert Ballantyne. "When he had an idea, he didn't waste a lot of time discussing it. He just went ahead and did it."
A native San Diegan, Peterson was the son of a salesman for a milk and ice cream company [Oscar W Peterson and Wilma M Burge]. His talents as an organizer and promoter became apparent when he attended San Diego State College.
Peterson founded the Collegiate Club to hold dances at Balboa Park on Friday nights and was helped by fellow students Art Linkletter, Faye Emerson and Gregory Peck. The profits allowed Peterson to pay his college expenses.
For a time in the 1950's, the Collegiate Club of San Diego held Saturday night dances for high school, junior college, and college students in the building. Between dances, couples relaxed in the 1935 Hall of Youth whose walls had been adorned with paintings lent by the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery.
Later, he was a traveling salesman for a company that sold milkshake mixers. He founded Topsy's drive-in restaurant in San Diego in 1941 and served as a lieutenant in naval intelligence during World War II.
After the war, Topsy's became Oscar's (named for his father - Oscar W. Peterson) and Peterson pioneered the concept of the "drive-through," where patrons drove away as soon as their food arrived. The idea was to make a fortune for Peterson and revolutionize the fast-food industry and the American way of eating.
In 1950 he started his first Jack in the Box restaurant and expanded the drive-through idea to include a speaker hidden inside a brightly colored plastic clown.
Because patrons did not linger, the restaurants enjoyed high volume sales and prices could be kept low. He resisted unionization but installed a profit-sharing plan for employees.
By 1967, when Peterson sold the chain to Ralston-Purina, there were 300 Jack in the Box restaurants and the drive-through idea had become an industry standard.
From hamburgers, he branched out to banking, hotels, philanthropy and civic improvement.
Although studiously avoiding publicity, he was one of a handful of civic-minded businessmen who transformed San Diego from a Navy town where the power structure was clubby and predominantly Republican and the economy was perilously dependent on military spending.
He backed reformist political candidates and greatly expanded activities to market San Diego worldwide as a vacation spot. He founded a fund-raising group that aggressively tapped private and public sources to bolster museums, theaters and individual artists.
His penchant for change, and his lack of tact in accomplishing it, earned him the enmity of some in the city's business community. "The Establishment hates me because they don't like the boat rocked," Peterson said in an interview with The Times in 1982.
A registered Republican, he nonetheless supported Alan Cranston, George S. McGovern, Frank Church and the presidential campaign of Edward M. Kennedy. For his fund-raising efforts on behalf of those and other Democrats, he was named to the "enemies list" compiled by the Administration of President Richard Nixon.
Although Peterson was a supporter and contributor for three decades, Cranston said he never asked for a political favor or tried to influence a vote. He was, however, blunt when asked his opinion.
"If you made a suggestion that he didn't like, he'd say, 'Hell no, that's the wrong thing to do,' " Cranston said.
Peterson received the City of Paris Medal of Honor for his contributions to the arts. President Lyndon Johnson named him chairman of a small business advisory committee and a lecture hall was named in his honor at UC San Diego in appreciation of his contributions.
With world-renowned fabric designer Jack Lenor Larsen, Peterson founded the New York-based American Crafts Council to promote folk art. He was also a collector with a taste for sculpture and post-Impressionist painting.
In 1977, Peterson married O'Connor, 30 years his junior, who was then finishing her second term on the San Diego City Council. Peterson's three earlier marriages had ended in divorce.
A shrewd businessman and tough negotiator, Peterson purchased and renovated hotels such as the historic Mendocino Hotel. "He loved making deals," Larsen said. "I think that's what kept him going when he got so sick."
In his 1982 interview, one of the few he granted, Peterson said: "I don't ever want to be bored and don't think I ever can be. There's too much in this world and so damn little time to know it."
Survivors include three sons, Gary, Cris and Patrick, and a daughter, Jan Alldredge, all from his marriage to Lorraine Bhalla.
Funeral services are pending.
Source: April 20, 1994|TONY PERRY | LA TIMES STAFF WRITER
_________________________
Peterson was a native San Diegan, the son of Oscar W. Peterson and Wilma M Burge.
Robert graduated from Hoover High School in 1933, attended San Diego State College and graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics. He was a naval intelligence officer during World War II. He was married four times, notably (in 1977) to Maureen O'Connor, who went on to become the first female mayor of San Diego from 1985 to 1992; this was his only marriage not to end in divorce. The former mayor was at his side when he died in 1994. He had four children by his previous marriage to Lorraine Bhalla, none of whom went into the restaurant business.
Peterson entered the restaurant business in 1941 with a drive-in diner called "Topsy's" (later renamed "Oscar's"), located at 6270 El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego. This was a classic drive-in where food was served by carhops to patrons in the parking lot. Over the next decade his company, the San Diego Commissary Company, operated several Topsy's and Oscar's restaurants throughout San Diego, including a flagship Oscar's at Midway Drive and Rosecrans Street in the Midway area. In 1951, he converted the Oscar's on El Cajon Boulevard into the first Jack in the Box, a drive-through with the innovation of a two-way intercom that allowed one car to place an order while another car was being served. Other restaurants had previously offered drive-up window service, but Jack in the Box was the first major chain to make drive-through windows the focus of its operation. Since the concept was unfamiliar to most customers, the speaker (topped with the trademark clown) had a sign that announced "Pull forward, Jack will speak to you!"
The Jack in the Box restaurant was conceived as a "modern food machine" and was designed by La Jolla master architect Russell Forester, who also designed Peterson's landmark home in Point Loma in 1965.
Peterson built the chain to over 300 locations. He renamed his company Foodmaker in 1960 and sold it in 1967 to Ralston-Purina. By that time, the "drive-thru" concept had become an industry standard.
He spent the final 30 years of his life in philanthropy and civic improvement. He was a consistent patron of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sponsoring research for many years, and donating the 96-foot diesel yacht Dolphin to the institution in 1973. Peterson Hall at the University of California, San Diego is named after him.
In 1984, he was diagnosed with leukemia. He battled the disease for the next 10 years until his death in 1994 at the age of 78.
Source: Wikipedia
Military Information: LT, US NAVY
