FULLERTON, Calif., Jan. 12 Carl Karcher, founder of the Carl's Jr. chain of fast-food restaurants, died Friday in California at 90.
A spokeswoman for CKE Restaurants told The Los Angeles Times the cause was pneumonia related to Parkinson's disease. Karcher died at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton.
Like other fast-food pioneers, Karcher took advantage of the affluence and automobile culture of the 1950s. An eighth-grade dropout, he started in 1941 with a single hot-dog cart bought with a loan guaranteed by his new car and owned several carts by the time he enlisted in the military in World War II.
In 1945, Karcher opened Carl's Drive-In Barbecue in Anaheim, Calif. In the 1950s, two smaller branches were given the name Carl's Junior, which expanded into a chain of 1,000 restaurants.
Karcher was also known for his conservative political views, which included support of a proposal to allow homosexual teachers to be fired. In the 1980s, he became involved in an insider-trading scandal, and he came close to bankruptcy in the 1990s when the price of company stock fell.
Karcher's wife of 66 years, Margaret Heinz Karcher, died last year.
Copyright 2008 by UPI
