Arch Clark West, 97, the retired Frito-Lay executive credited with creating Doritos, died last week in Dallas. His family plans to sprinkle Doritos at his graveside service.
“We are tossing Doritos chips in before they put the dirt over the urn,” said his daughter, Jana Hacker. “He’ll love it.”
West had a food-industry reputation when the Frito Co. recruited him to be its marketing vice president in 1960. He was inspired to create Doritos after Frito merged with H.W. Lay & Co. in 1961. He was on a family vacation to California at the time.
“We were near San Diego, and he stumbled on some little shack where they were making some interesting kind of chip,” his daughter said.
Doritos, the first tortilla chip to be sold nationally, became a multimillion-dollar product for Frito-Lay, now part of PepsiCo Inc.
The Dallas Morning News
