w&jtaking your own path
“I cannot begin to tell you how W&J really prepared me for my career and my life…”
Robert Beavers’ company, Best Harvest Bakeries, supplies sandwich buns to 675 McDonald’s restaurants in the Midwest. Above: Beavers hits the books his freshman year at W&J.
Climbing to the top of the golden arches Robert Beavers ‘65 began his career at McDonald’s nearly 50 years ago when he landed a job as a part-time crew member. The 17-year-old never could have envisioned then that he would rise to become the highest-ranking African American in the McDonald’s Corporation, holding the title of senior vice president and senior management liaison, and making history as the first African American member of McDonald’s Board of Directors. Looking back to the fall of 1961, as a freshman at Washington & Jefferson College, even Beavers admits it was not his career plan. “I took a full-time job at McDonald’s and then was offered a management position,” he said. “I saw promise in the opportunity, and I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish, although it was not at all what I saw myself doing after college. I spent 22 years on the McDonald’s Board of Directors.”
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Today, he continues his relationship with McDonald’s as principal owner, CEO and chairman of Best Harvest Bakeries in Kansas City, Ks., a soft-roll bakery that supplies both McDonald’s and the U.S. military. Beavers and Edward Honestly Jr. spent a combined 55 years working for McDonald’s prior to forming a partnership with Fresh Start Bakeries. In 1999, Beavers partnered with Fresh Start’s management team and employees to purchase the company’s international bakery organization from Campbell’s Soup. Fresh Start was a premier baked-goods supplier to McDonald’s for more than 30 years when Beavers and Honestly purchased majority ownership in its Kansas City bakery, creating the foundation for Best Harvest. In addition to running the bakery, Beavers is CEO of Beavers Holdings, which oversees a group of companies that serve the fast food industry with a variety of products, such as straws and napkins. It is an interesting path for the Washington, D.C., native who earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University after family circumstances and the cancellation of W&J’s engineering program partnership with Carnegie Mellon University led him to return to his hometown to finish his degree.
But Beavers fondly remembers his education at W&J and serves the College today as an active member of W&J’s Board of Trustees. He said that W&J is more than an education—it is an opportunity for young men and women to learn about people and relationships. “My experience and my interactions at W&J were invaluable to me,” Beavers said. “Being at W&J was very special to me. You come across situations in life that arise from time to time and W&J prepared me to overcome those challenges.” He credits Josephine, his wife of 45 years, for first suggesting that he get a job at McDonald’s. They have four grown children, all of whom are involved in various areas of the family business, which Beavers said brings him great pride. His father was a researcher and a doctor; his mother, a teacher and attorney. His mother once told Beavers that she had three goals she wanted to accomplish before she died: to write a book, to fly a plane and to graduate from law school. She earned a pilot’s license in her late 60s and wrote an autobiography shortly before she passed away. And not only did she graduate from law school, she gave the commencement address. She practiced law into her 80s.