09 autumn reporter 1-20 - Franklin College
09 autumn reporter 1-20 - Franklin College
09 autumn reporter 1-20 - Franklin College
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“When I go into a supermarket, I still get a kick out of seeing Doritos., ®<br />
I think, ‘That was my idea, and it’s still going.’”<br />
Along the way, he also met his future<br />
wife, Charlotte. The couple had started a<br />
family by the time Standard Brands<br />
offered a product management position<br />
at its Manhattan headquarters.<br />
“I was the V8 ® juice product manager,”<br />
said West. “It had been developed by a<br />
company in Terre Haute (Ind.) and being<br />
a Hoosier I already knew a little about it.”<br />
West’s skillful management of the<br />
V8 ® product line caught the attention<br />
of headhunters who recruited him as a<br />
sales manager for Comstock Foods,<br />
an applesauce maker in upstate New York.<br />
After that, West went to work for Lever<br />
Brothers, makers of soaps and cosmetics.<br />
Next, there was the advertising and<br />
public relations agency of Young &<br />
Rubicam, where he managed the JELL-O ®<br />
account.<br />
Soon after, a headhunter<br />
representing<br />
the Frito Co. called and<br />
invited West to lunch with<br />
the company president and the<br />
chairman. The possibility of working<br />
for an innovative snack company<br />
sounded intriguing, but there was<br />
one troublesome issue.<br />
“Frankly, I had no idea then what a<br />
Frito was,” recalled West.<br />
However, it didn’t take long before<br />
he hit the ground running as vice<br />
president of marketing, sales and<br />
advertising. He, Charlotte and their four<br />
children moved from the East Coast to<br />
Texas, where the Frito Co. had headquarters.<br />
After a long career of managing<br />
the Doritos ® brand, West retired from<br />
Frito Co. as the executive vice president<br />
Arch West ’36 and his wife, Charlotte, pose at the Well House during a visit to campus in the 1990s.<br />
ARCHIVAL PHOTO<br />
and a member of the board of directors,<br />
but he didn’t stop working.<br />
He took a reservist position with FEMA<br />
and spent 10 years working on-call as a<br />
coordinator of disaster recovery centers.<br />
He and Charlotte traveled to cities<br />
coping with crises and worked with<br />
local government officials to help set up<br />
communication centers, train volunteers,<br />
educate victims about FEMA services and<br />
distribute essential goods.<br />
At almost 95, West says he enjoys “taking<br />
it easy” these days. However, he still finds<br />
time to exercise daily and enjoys reading<br />
magazines and watching movies. Once in<br />
awhile he reminisces about college, too.<br />
“I still look back at <strong>Franklin</strong> for<br />
rewarding me with the knowledge to<br />
carry on after I graduated,” said West.<br />
“I think I would have been lost at a big<br />
school; <strong>Franklin</strong> was my style. The classes<br />
were small, and even the professors who<br />
didn’t have me in class knew my name.<br />
I goofed off sometimes, but the<br />
professors were fair; they looked out<br />
for the students.”<br />
According to West, some of the<br />
neighbors in his retirement community<br />
attended universities with enrollments of<br />
30,000 or more students. He enjoys telling<br />
them about his little alma mater in the<br />
Midwest.<br />
“I’m really proud of <strong>Franklin</strong> <strong>College</strong>.<br />
I brag about it to my neighbors,” he said.<br />
West served on the <strong>Franklin</strong> <strong>College</strong><br />
Board of Trustees from 1966 to 1975 and<br />
attended his 60th class reunion over<br />
Homecoming weekend in 1996.<br />
WWW.FRANKLINCOLLEGE.EDU AUTUMN <strong>20</strong><strong>09</strong> 59