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L.F. Borchardt, 99, was cereal researcher, inventor

The longtime General Mills executive invented cereal-making techniques, helping to serve up Wheaties, Cheerios and Kix at breakfast time.

By Ben Cohen, Star Tribune

Last update: January 24, 2007 - 10:42 PM

Inventor and longtime General Mills executive Lester (L.F.) Borchardt, who helped develop Cheerios and other cereals, died in Edina on Sunday.

The Minneapolis resident was 99.

Borchardt, who held 11 patents on inventions ranging from military optics to a device for monitoring moisture in grain, co-invented an air gun that makes cereal, said his granddaughter Gay Johnson of Castle Rock, Minn.

"It would get clogged and make a booming noise" when he was working a floor above a General Mills laboratory. It was so disruptive that Borchardt's boss found him a new office.

Borchardt, who conducted research that led to familiar cereal brands such as Cheerios, Wheaties and Kix, held more than one cereal-packaging patent, according to an e-mail from the company.

Borchardt's daughter, Gail, of Minneapolis, said that he loved working at the Golden Valley company, whether he was inventing or leading departments.

In 1933, he joined the firm as a physicist, and in 1959 he was named as managing director of the company's central research laboratory. When he retired in 1969, he was a vice president.

In 1956, Borchardt and others at General Mills made headlines when they set up a laboratory with cobalt 60, a radioactive element, to study "atomic treated food." He and others were taking the early steps to discover how to irradiate food.

During his career, he also developed a basic process for producing vitamins. And during World War II, he set up a precision optics group to make precision instruments for the military.

In 1968, Borchardt was named to the board of Provesta Corp., a joint venture of General Mills and Phillips Petroleum Co. Provesta made high-protein foods from materials such as soybeans, to make more food available to poor nations.

Borchardt, who earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1929, was awarded the university's Outstanding Achievement Award in 1987, partly for his work in humanitarian food relief.

His wife, Elsie, died in 1996.

He is survived by his son, Lester Jr. of Vero Beach, Fla.; daughter, Gail Borchardt of Minneapolis; sister, Gladys Gozola of Minneapolis; three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church, 5435 11th Av., S. Minneapolis.

Ben Cohen • bcohen@startribune.com