5/15/1945 (Buried)
Frank Mars was born in 1882 in Hancock, Minnesota. Breck School alumni. He learned how to hand-dip chocolate candy as a child from his mother Alva, who hoped to entertain him as he had a mild case of polio. He began to sell molasses chips at age 19. Mars and Ethel G. Kissack (September 29, 1882 – April 11, 1980), a schoolteacher, were married in 1902. Their son, Forrest Mars, Sr., was born in 1904 in Wadena, Minnesota. They divorced. Mars and Ethel Veronica Healy (1884 – December 25, 1945) were married in 1910. That year he began to sell candy wholesale in Tacoma, Washington. In 1920, they moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Mars founded Mar-O-Bar Co. and began to manufacture chocolate candy bars. The company later incorporated as Mars, Incorporate d. In 1923 he introduced his son Forrest's idea, the Milky Way, which became the best-selling candy bar. Mars moved to Chicago in 1929 and settled in River Forest. He became an honorary captain of the Oak Park, Illinois police department. In 1930, Mars developed the Snickers Bar. Mars died from heart problems in 1934 at age 50, with the ownership of the family business passing to his son Forrest.