Cheerios, An Invention That Almost Didn't Happen

(WCCO) It's a staple of the American breakfast table -- Cheerios.

The cereal was developed in the Twin Cities at General Mills by a Minneapolis man. Lester Borchardt was Vice President and Director of Research at General Mills when he retired in 1969. He died on Sunday. He was 99-years-old.

The snack is popular with moms. Little Danika was out with her mom on Wednesday afternoon, and of course, she had a stock of Cheerios in her bag. Danika popped a few in her mouth.

"Her favorite is the Honeynut Cheerios. She eats them all the time, usually for breakfast," said Danika's mother, Denise Carr.

Cheerios, originally called Cheerioats, were invented by Lester Borchardt back in 1941, but Cheerios almost didn't happen.

Les and his team were working on the machine to puff cereal, like Cheerios, but his boss wanted them to stop the project. Les insisted they go on, and two months later, Cheerios was born.

"Some people referred to him as a genius, and I do think he was," said Les' Daughter-in-Law Mary Borchardt.

Years ago Les' granddaughter drank a bottle of furniture polish. Cheerios may have helped save her life.

"So we took her to the emergency and had her stomach pumped. The doctor came out and said if she hadn't had such a good breakfast of Cheerios and milk, she would have not made it," said Mary Borchardt.

Les' family said he was humble and didn't talk about all his inventions and patents. He had 11 of them and he also helped come up with the process to fortify milk with vitamin D.

He worked at General Mills for more than 35 years and his daughter said he ate Cheerios just about every morning of his life.

"He was just a very good, generous father," said Les' daughter Gail Borchardt.

"He was just the greatest guy ever. I mean, everybody just loved him," said Mary Borchardt.

Les Borchardt also conducted research other familiar cereal brands including Wheaties and Kix.