Robert Krekeler, cigarette distributor and founder of food bank, dies

Robert L. Krekeler sold cigarettes by the truckful but stopped smoking and didn't want his family members to start.
He also sold tons of candy but consumed little of that product either.
But "he liked selling it," his wife, Joyce Krekeler, recalled Tuesday.
Mr. Krekeler owned Mound City Industries Inc., at one time one of the oldest cigarette distributors in the country and described as the largest in St. Louis.
He died Friday (March 18, 2011) at his home in Warson Woods. He was 68 and had battled bile duct and liver cancer since December, his family said.
In 1975, Mr. Krekeler helped start the first major food bank in the metropolitan area after the broadcasting of a documentary series by Channel 4's Al Wiman titled "Hunger: A St. Louis Emergency."
Mr. Krekeler later got a call from Monsignor John Schocklee of the St. Louis Archdiocesan Human Rights Commission. He wanted to know what happened to unused supermarket food.
Mr. Krekeler had spent most of his life in the distribution business and he knew just what to do.
He arranged a meeting with representatives of groceries and local food suppliers. Some of them were sending leftover food to landfills.
Mr. Krekeler and others said a better use would be feeding the needy.
That was the start of the Food Crisis Network.
Today, it operates as the St. Louis Area Food Bank. It distributed more than 23 million pounds of food last year in 26 counties.
Mr. Krekeler grew up in south St. Louis, the youngest of six children. His grandfather and father started a wholesale food distribution company.
When the family moved to a farm in Chesterfield, he switched from Chaminade to Parkway High School, where he graduated in 1961.
He met his future wife on a blind date on a toboggan ride at his family's farm. They married in 1964. He later studied business at Washington University and St. Louis University.
Mr. Krekeler started in the family business and in 1977 left to became president and then owner of Mound City. The company sold cigarettes and candy to nearly 2,000 grocers, convenience stores, theaters and hospitals.
Aware of the dangers of smoking, he quit during the 1980s. He sometimes avoided the subject of tobacco by telling people that he was in the candy business.
But he also fought for the right to smoke and against those who would tax cigarettes out of existence.
Mr. Krekeler retired and dissolved his company in 2006. He served during the 1970s as a Warson Woods alderman.
A memorial Mass will held at 5 p.m. today at Ste. Genevieve du Bois Catholic Church, 1575 North Woodlawn Avenue, Warson Woods. Burial will be private at St. Peter's Cemetery in Kirkwood.
Survivors, in addition to his wife, include two daughters, Margaret Cox of University City and Amy Krekeler of Brentwood; a brother, Gregory Krekeler of Chesterfield; three sisters, Joann Reardon of Frontenac, Delores Chivetta of Ladue and Sally Knoll of Chesterfield; and three grandchildren.