Robert Peterson, Fast-Food Pioneer
SAN DIEGO - Robert Oscar Peterson, an 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 last night at age 78 at his Point Loma, Calif., home.
He had fought leukemia for more than a decade.
Mr. Peterson initiated the drive-through window, an idea that made him a fortune and changed the way Americans eat.
He started his first Jack in the Box in 1950.
By 1967, when Peterson sold the chain to Ralston-Purina, there were 300 Jack in the Box outlets, and the drive-through idea had become the industry standard.
From hamburgers, he branched out to banking, hotels, philanthropy and civic improvement.