Nelson G. Harris, 85, former Tasty Baking Co. chairman
Apr 19, 2018Harris, 85, of Lafayette Hill, who retired in 1992 as chairman and chief executive officer of Tasty Baking Co., died Tuesday, Jan. 10, at home of complications from pancreatic cancer.Mr. Harris had two careers at Tasty.He joined the firm as secretary and treasurer in 1959 and, in 1960, was elected Tasty's treasurer and financial vice president.In 1968, Mr. Harris left to become president of the Horn & Hardart Baking Co. He rose to chief executive there.A newspaper report said Horn & Hardart closed its last Philadelphia automat, at 818 Chestnut St., in May 1969. At automats, each plate of food was in a glass-paneled wall container and customers would slip nickels into a wall slot to unlock the containers.In 1971, Mr. Harris became president and director of Central Valley Co., the mortgage and title insurance subsidiary of Industrial Valley Bank & Trust Co. of Philadelphia.In the 1970s, Mr. Harris was president of the Industrial Valley Bank golf tournament, held at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club.His second Tasty Baking career began in 1979, when, after an 11-year absence, he returned as president and chief operating officer.In 1981, Mr. Harris became Tasty's president and CEO, and, in 1991, its chairman and CEO, a son, Thomas, said.Mr. Harris became involved with the Blind Relief Fund of Philadelphia in 1958, his son said, and was its president from 1968 to 2000.He received the Lewis Braille Award from the Associated Services for the Blind in 1986 and the Wills Eye Hospital Award for Service to the Blind and Visually Handicapped in 1992.On a whimsical note, a 1977 newspaper story reported that Mr. Harris' wife, Rita, had "the distinction of being the first woman to be an overnight guest" at the Union League in its then-115-year history. Mr. Harris was a Union League vice president at the time.After attending a Saturday-night concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music in October 1977, the story reported, Mr. and Mrs. Harris slept in one of three newly redecorated bedroom suites at the Union Leag... (Philadelphia Inquirer)
