Retirement won’t end ex-CEO’s role in Austin

Though his time as Hormel Foundation chair is coming to an end, Richard Knowlton will still be around town. After decades working for Hormel Foods Corp., Knowlton wants to give back to the town that raised him, the town that shaped him to be the man he is today.

“We’re doing a good job of getting the best that we can get,” Knowlton said.

Knowlton’s story is well known by now: his job as a meat packer at 16 to help support his family, his summers spent working as a sales representative in Denver while he attended the University of Colorado, his refusal to go play football for the Philadelphia Eagles so he could work in sales at Hormel (according to Knowlton, the money was better with Hormel), and his rise to become president and CEO of Hormel Foods, switching the company’s focus from red meat to packaged foods during the 1980s and turning Hormel into a global brand.

It all wouldn’t have been possible without the education Knowlton received in Austin, he said, something he credits to this day. That’s why he was so insistent upon helping Austin Public Schools while he was chairman of the Hormel Foundation, a position he will step down from in November. Knowlton will be replaced by foundation Vice Chair Gary J. Ray.

“I didn’t realize what a great education I had received in Austin,” Knowlton said.

During his time at the Hormel Foundation, he’s helped the expansion of Austin High School, the expansion of Ellis Middle School, given away millions to local organizations, focused on funding the Hormel Institute and helped build partnerships with Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin.

“Those are important things and you realize that when you go through the system,” Knowlton said.

Although he’ll be taking time to rest and pursue more of his hobbies (he’s built several homes and cabins, including a recent creek-side cabin in southern Minnesota), Knowlton said he’ll still be around, still pursuing good causes for the community, still watching what Hormel is doing.

“Everything worked out and … I was very fortunate to live in a place like Austin,” he said.