The street that leads to Dick Knowlton’s childhood home — the one in front of the Fortune 500 company he led for 14 years — now bears his name.

City officials honored former Hormel Foods CEO and President Dick Knowlton and his wife, Nancy Knowlton, on Sunday by giving 16th Avenue NE the honorary name of Knowlton Avenue. Officials said the street name will remain 16th Avenue NE and nobody will need to change their address, but a “Knowlton Avenue” sign was erected at the intersection.

Hormel CEO and President Jeff Ettinger said having an Austin man climb the ranks of the company means a lot to the community.

“I do think that’s a significant element of local pride to have a local boy do as much as Dick Knowlton has,” Ettinger said.

Knowlton, who grew up just a few blocks from Hormel, said living there in a small home with lots of siblings was challenging, but his family got by.

“I had seven brothers and sisters, and we had a four-room house,” Knowlton said. “So that was tough. But we were happy.”

James Hormel, son of former Hormel president Jay C. Hormel and grandson of Hormel founder George A. Hormel, was in attendance. He said the Knowltons have set an enormous example for the company and the community.

“Dick grew up here, he went through the company, and he knew the company step by step,” Hormel said. “(The Knowltons) have made Austin a very special place.”

Knowlton’s story is well known in Austin: 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 decision to turn down an offer to play NFL 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.

Knowlton also led Hormel during the year-long strike from 1985-86 that drew national attention.

He was president, CEO and chairman of the board of Hormel Foods from 1981 to 1995. He joined the Hormel Foundation in 1979, becoming chairman in 1995. He was inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame in 2010. He has won many awards for his leadership as well, including Carnegie-Mellon’s Outstanding Crisis Manager of the Year in 1987, the Anti-Defamation League’s Man of Achievement Award in 1990, the Industry Advancement Award by the American Meat Institute in 1993 and was inducted into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame in 2009.

Knowlton will step down as chair of the Foundation on Nov. 30, and Vice Chair Gary J. Ray will assume Knowlton’s duties.

Mayor Tom Stiehm said Knowlton always put Austin first.

“He’s the last CEO to have been born and raised in Austin, and I think Austin is foremost in his decisions and I think it’s showed,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of cities in our area that have suffered, while unemployment in Austin is relatively low and the city is actually growing, and I think a lot of that is some of the policies he instituted at Hormel and his leadership in the past that’s continued today.”

— Reporter Trey Mewes contributed to this report.