John B. Gardetto, 71, grew family bakery into nationally known salted snacks company
25th Century Quaker
Long bread sticks became specialty
By AMY RABIDEAU SILVERS
Posted: June 11, 2007
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=617770
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John B. Gardetto
John B. Gardetto grew up in his parents' bakery business, but he was
the one who helped it grow up as corner bakeries became an endangered
species.
Gardetto helped the little bakery find new life as a thriving
wholesale operation. The Gardetto name, once famous in its old Bay
View neighborhood, became known throughout the United States and
elsewhere.
Under his watch, the commercial operation was best known for its long,
thin bread sticks found on restaurant tables and grocery shelves.
Later, he embraced a new business plan that daughter Nan Cherek wanted
to try, and the firm became known for all kinds of salted snacks, too.
"The factory was totally his baby," son Greg Gardetto said. "That was
where he saw he could make the biggest contribution."
Gardetto died Wednesday, about five years after being diagnosed with
thyroid cancer. He was 71. Gardetto lived in Muskego and wintered in
Naples, Fla.
His parents, Baptiste and Diane Gardetto, started their bakery in
1932. John Gardetto and brother Richard started out "doing a lot of
cleanup" and acting as bakers' helpers there, Gardetto later said.
After graduation from the old Don Bosco High School, a forerunner of
Thomas More High School, Gardetto earned a degree in accounting from
Marquette University. Then it was back to the family business.
It was at a Christmas party for bakery employees that Gardetto met his
future wife, the former Judy Sweet. She was coming to pick up her
sister, who worked at the bakery. Gardetto asked her to wait, took his
date home and came back to take her out.
"They were married a year later," Cherek said.
By the late 1960s, the bakery was facing increasing competition from
supermarket bakeries. The decision was made to specialize in those
long bread sticks. Gardetto's opened its first plant on Milwaukee's
south side. Gardetto became company president.
"He really enjoyed the machinery and the process and working things
out," Greg said. "He went to trade shows all over the world to find
equipment and adapt it to our needs. 'Don't buy cheap, or you'll end
up doing it twice,' he would say."
But Gardetto really was best with people.
"He walked the plant every day and shook the hand of every employee,"
Cherek said.
"If you get good people, the business takes care of itself," Gardetto
liked to say.
"He trusted us," employees have since told the family.
The business was sold to General Mills in 1999. With her father's
support, Cherek began a new business. She called it Baptista's Bakery,
the feminine version of her grandfather's name and her father's middle
name.
"I named it after them," she said. "They were my mentors.
"My dad was a very simple man and a very humble man. He valued people
and relationships with people over everything."
Gardetto was recently honored as a distinguished alumnus at Marquette
University.
Favorite charities included Thomas More High School, where the
Gardetto Family Technology Center was named in his honor.
He also became a financial donor to the BloodCenter of Wisconsin.
Survivors include Judy, his wife of 49 years. In addition to his son
Greg and daughter Nan, he is survived by daughter Luann Durand; sons
Johnny and Gary; and grandchildren.
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