A class act - RIP Nello Ferrara

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Nello Ferrara, 93, invented Lemonheads, saw MacArthur in occupied Japan, sang with Sinatra
Nello Ferrara was a singer who liked to serenade people.

But to snackers with a sweet tooth, he was better known as the inventor of spicy-hot Atomic FireBalls and lip-puckering Lemonheads.

Mr. Ferrara, the chairman of Chicago�s Ferrara Pan Candy Co., died Friday at his home in River Forest at age 93.

The company produces treats including Red Hots, Black Forest Gummy Bears, Boston Baked Beans and Jawbusters.

Mr. Ferrara came up with the idea of spicy-hot Atomic FireBalls in 1954, after serving in Occupied Japan in the post-atom bomb era, according to his son, company CEO Salvatore Ferrara II.

Nello Ferrara was a young attorney when he worked on a U.S. Army war crimes tribunal in Tokyo. He often saw the jut-jawed, hard-charging General Douglas MacArthur.

�They worked in the same building,� Salvatore Ferrara II said. His father told him the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers �was his own man. You did what he said, and that was it. He was pretty stern.�

Nello�s father, the original Salvatore Ferrara � who was from the Rome-Naples region � founded the company in Chicago in 1908, selling the candy-coated almonds known as �confetti� that signify good luck at Italian weddings.

I was a big Lemonhead (candy not band) fan for a long long time -- going to buy a box tomorrow for lunch just for the remembrance. Read the rest of the obit -- Mr. Ferrara was an amazing man. I would take one of him over 1,000,000 of the Occupy nn self-centered morons.