Peter Volid*

Peter Volid, the son of poor immigrant parents, was born in Chicago in 1907. He started selling newspapers at age six. When he was 10, he worked as a Western Union messenger boy in Chicago's Loop district. At 15, he quit school so that he could make more money to help support his family.

Volid's first jobs were as an errand boy in a food plant and as a clerk in a grocery store. He next became a detail man for Brillo, and then went on to be a salesman and sales promotion manager for Red Cross Macaroni.

He eventually founded multiple companies, the most popular of which was the Fireside Marshmallow Company. When he had built the firm into the second largest of its kind, he sold his interests and retired. However, he soon became restless and started the King Korn trading stamp venture, which became a multimillion-dollar business.

After he retired in 1973, Volid earned a GED and then a bachelor's degree from Northeastern Illinois University in only one year. He continued on to earn a master's degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, and became a marriage counselor.

Volid later started a program that offered physical and mental health screenings in the workplace. He also served as national chairman of the supermarket division of the Muscular Dystrophy Association of America.