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Chuck Kesey, dairy innovator and brother of Ken Kesey, died Thursday at the age of 87 in Eugene, according to a statement from Springfield Creamery, the multimillion-dollar Willamette Valley probiotic food company he co-founded. A memorial service for Kesey will be held at a later date, but the Kesey family requests support for the Chuck and Sue Kesey Endowed Scholarship at Oregon State University’s Department of Food Science and Technology.
“His legacy isn’t just in every cup of yogurt,” said his son, Kit Kesey, in a statement. “It’s in the culture of curiosity, kindness, and the commitment of doing things the right way, even if you have to strap it together. He created that culture and instilled it in all of us.”
Kesey was born in New Mexico but moved with his family to Eugene as a child, where he and his brother Ken were introduced to the dairy industry as children. Kesey graduated from OSU with a degree in dairy science, while Ken graduated from University of Oregon. Ken became one of the giants of Oregon literature, where Chuck and his wife Susan, who died in August, made a lasting mark in the local food scene. In 1970, Chuck and Susan developed what they believed was the first commercially available yogurt in the United States to contain live probiotics, developing a recipe by company bookkeeper Nancy Van Brasch Hamren into the Nancy’s Yogurt brand.
When Springfield Creamery hit a financial rough patch in 1972, Ken Kesey reached out to the Grateful Dead to help his brother’s business, resulting in a now-legendary benefit show at the site of what is now the Oregon Country Fair that raised enough to get the struggling facility back on its feet. By 1999, Nancy’s Yogurt could be found in all 50 states, according to the company’s website.
Chuck Kesey remained active at Springfield Creamery as “the Keeper of the Culture,” personally tasting yogurt batches without relying on pH readers alone. He enjoyed indulging his intellectual curiosity in subjects ranging from galaxies and art to local wildlife, as well as sharing his foraged finds—including rocks, mushrooms and flowers—with everyone from friends and family to creamy employees.
“Our dad never stopped exploring—his mind was interested in so many pieces of life,” said Sheryl Kesey Thompson, Kesey’s daughter and co-owner of Springfield Creamery, in a statement. “He believed that real, healthy food could make people’s lives better. That was his true calling, and I think that is what he was most pleased to have had an impact on.”
