Albert Riedel
1892 - 1989
Known as Mr. Michigan Bean Company, Al Riedel lived to the ripe old age of 97. He was a self-made man who was full of quotable observations on business, the world, the economy and life in general. He was born in 1892 in Minden, Michigan, a small farming community in Michigan’s Thumb.
Circumstances forced him to drop out of school after graduating from the eighth grade. As biographer Tom Mudd commented, “That Minden school must have been some school. His diploma read, ‘This certificate permits the holder to enter Michigan State Agricultural College without any further examination.’” Of education, Riedel was to say, “…you need the best education that it is possible to get…but one complaint is that there is too much emphasis on play and athletics and not enough on intensive study.”
Riedel and the former Ruth Harrison were married October 13, 1913 and had one daughter, Phyllis Riedel Symons.
As a young man, Riedel was one of the organizers of the Producers Elevator Company of Port Huron which later grew into the Michigan Bean Company He was elected secretary of Michigan Bean when it moved its headquarters to Saginaw’s Bearinger Building and he was only 27 when he was named general manager of the company. As a success at an early age, he could say, “In operating a business, it seems to me anybody properly taught should understand that income, outgo and volume must first be established…certain expenses, usually termed overhead, must be paid whether one does business or not.”
In 1937, Riedel became president of the company as well as general manager and served in that capacity until the firm was sold to the Wickes Corporation in 1955. As president of Michigan Bean, Al Riedel pushed the idea of selling packaged, trademarked beans to the retail market instead of relying on bulk sales. He was instrumental in making the Jack Rabbit brand of beans known all over the world.
Famed magician Harry Houdini appeared in Saginaw. In the course of his act, he asked for a volunteer helper from the audience promising his rabbit as a come-on. Al’s young daughter Phyllis volunteered. At the successful close of the trick, she insisted on receiving the promised bunny and proudly carried it home. Later, the troublesome rabbit was on the menu at the Minden home of Riedel’s parents. When Riedel was trying to think of a mascot for the company’s advertising, he remembered the incident. And it was while Riedel was president that the famous Bean Bunny neon sign was erected at the top of “the world’s largest bean elevator.” The Bean Bunny, proudly relit until it was hopelessly damaged in a storm, had become one of Saginaw’s most beloved symbols.
During World War II, too old for active service, Riedel volunteered as a dollar-a-year-man and served as a consultant attached to the Quartermaster Corps. He revamped purchasing and shipping programs and designed and developed waterproof bags for shipping food overseas.
In 1961, Riedel headed a task force of six on a tour of ten European countries to drum up trade. He favored export sales of surplus American crops—even, surprisingly enough, to enemy countries, feeling that a well-fed population “would be disinclined to follow bad leadership.” In 1967, he went to Singapore for four months to help establish a grain terminal under the auspices of the International Executive Service Corporation.
A lifelong Republican, Riedel was chairman of the Saginaw Republican Party from 1963 to 1967 but commented, “We aren’t getting our money’s worth out of politics. Our congressional legislators spend too much time trying to get reelected and not enough time on the nation’s problems.”
Riedel tried retirement at the age of 70—for about six weeks—but decided it wasn’t for him. He went back to work as a consultant, opening an office in the Second National Bank Building. He contended that making a man retire just because of his age was unrealistic and robbed the community of brains and experience, especially if that man, like Riedel, was blessed with better-than-average health.
Al Riedel worked almost to the end and died on July 8, 1989. “I am truly grateful for my many blessings,” he said shortly before his death. “I find nothing wrong with this world that people could not correct if they put their minds to it.”