W.K. Kellogg Eye Center

Kellogg: Cereal and Philanthropy

by Ryan Aretha

Cereal and Ophthalmology- now those are two words that you don't tend to hear in the same sentence. That is, unless you are talking about William Keith Kellogg. Most know Kellogg as the man who invented cornflakes and started the largest cereal brand in the United States (The Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company started in Battle Creek Michigan in 1906 by William and his brother John (Cavendish)). But very few know that he was one of the leading philanthropists of his time. Without him the University of Michigan may not have had its own designated eye center.

W.K. Kellogg was born into a large family that struggled at times with money. According to the W.K Kellogg Foundation's web page, Kellogg, “began working to pay for his own clothes at the age of seven and took up the life of a traveling salesman at 14." Having grown up this way, he was said to always be super humble about his fortune after making it large and was a very generous person. For instance, during The Great Depression, Kellogg donated $66 million to start the Kellogg foundation to help families pay for the care of their sick and injured children (Influence Watch). Over time, the foundation has evolved to aid in many various fields and is one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world today.

The name Kellogg became connected to the ophthalmology program at UofM in 1981, when the Kellogg Foundation donated a large sum of money to open a designated eye center at Michigan Medicine. The Department of Ophthalmology at UofM is the fourth oldest in the United States, however it did not have its own designated building until the donation. The foundation made the donation because W.K. Kellogg himself developed Glaucoma late in his life which actually led him to go completely blind for the last ten years of his life (Michigan Medicine). This was an important cause for the foundation and the naming of the building brought light to the condition that not many realized he suffered from while aiding an ophthalmology department that was in dire need of resources.

The name Kellogg is derived from the Middle English name Kellen which means “to slaughter” and hog, according to both Nameberry.com and Selectsurnames.com. Thus meaning it was often the name of a pig butcher. Kellogg could have let the meaning of his name dictate his life, allowing the disease to “slaughter” him from his work but it only fueled Kellogg as in the last few years of his life he donated more and more money to various causes.

Despite not being around to see the center named after him, Kellogg's legacy and foundation have lived on and will continue to grow as more time passes. Kellogg eye center has eleven community clinics in Michigan, and hopefully that figure will continue to expand (Go Blue Guide). Not only will his legacy live on, but so will the Kellogg name.

The Kellogg Eye Center, photo courtesy

https://www.umkelloggeye.org/about-kec

Works Cited

Cavendish, Richard. "The Battle of the Cornflakes: The Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, later to be known as Kellogg's, was founded on February 19th, 1906." HistoryToday.com,

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/battle-cornflakes

“Faces behind the Places: Compassion, Generosity Helped Build Key Facilities.” Michigan Medicine Headlines, 26 June 2017, https://mmheadlines.org/2017/06/faces-behind-the-places/.

“History & Legacy.” W.K. Kellogg Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, https://www.wkkf.org/who-we-are/history-legacy.

“Kellogg Surname Meaning, History & Origin.” Select Surnames, Mediavine, 15 Aug. 2022, https://selectsurnames.com/kellogg/#:~:text=Originally%2C%20Kellogg%20was%20an%20occupational,Essex%20in%20the%2013th% 20century.

“Kellogg - Baby Name Meaning, Origin, and Popularity.” Nameberry, Nameberry, 2022, https://nameberry.com/babyname/kellogg.

"Kellogg Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/kellogg-surname-popularity/. Accessed 14 November, 2022

“W. K. Kellogg.” Reference for Business, Advameg, 14 Aug. 2010, https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/businesses/G-L/Kellogg-W-K.html.

W. K. Kellogg Foundation, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/w-k-kellogg-foundation/#:~:text=Kellogg%20Foundation.,Battle%20Creek%2C%20Michigan%2C%20hometown.

“W.K. Kellogg Eye Center.” Go Blue Guide, 8 Sept. 2020, https://goblueguide.medicine.umich.edu/buildings/wk-kellogg-eye-center.

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