Olmstead, C. Vern, 1912-1976

Clifford La Vern Olmstead was born on August 15, 1912 in Marshalltown, Iowa. He graduated from Grant High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1930 and married Irma Margaret Perkins on November 17, 1932. Olmstead began working in the meat industry in the mid-1930s and operated a retail meat market and hotel supply company. He later worked as a consultant and held positions at various companies including the National Live Stock and Meat Board in Chicago, Illinois (1939-1946); Vaunclair Purveyors, Ltd. in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1965); Wilson and Company, Inc. in Chicago (1965-1968); Consolidated Meat International, Ltd. in Tulsa, Oklahoma (1970s); and most prominently at Armour Food Service Company in Chicago (1946-1965) where he became President and General Manager. Olmstead’s work included marketing and selling different cuts of meat at large volumes, as well as innovating and understanding new methods of cutting and storing meats, and his contracts ranged from the military to school cafeteria clients.

Olmstead also published and presented on a variety of topics related to the meat industry, primarily related to the cutting, cooking, serving, pricing, selling, storing, and marketing of meat products to individuals and organizations. He worked with the Office of the Quartermaster General prior to World War II to plan frozen food distribution to troops, and during the war he worked for the both the United States Army and Navy to oversee all stages of meat distribution and helped develop a new cutting technique for meat preparation aboard naval ships. Olmstead also taught at military stations and later toured the country as an educator for the National Restaurant Association.

C. Vern Olmstead died on March 17, 1976.

Source:

C. Vern Olmstead's resume, C. Vern Olmstead Professional Papers, 1940-1975. MS-00008. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.