DULUTH, Minn. — Jeno Paulucci, a Minnesota business icon whose restaurant ventures included a company that popularized the finger food known as pizza rolls, has died. He was 93.
Dougherty Funeral Home in Duluth confirmed the death Thursday night to The Associated Press. Paulucci's daughter Cindy Paulucci Selton tells the Duluth News-Tribune (http://bit.ly/rW7fP3) he died Thursday morning at his home, just four days after his wife, Lois, passed away.
In 1944, Paulucci founded Duluth-based Chun King, which sold a line of canned Chinese food. He eventually sold that company to R.J. Reynolds Food Inc.
He'd become the first chairman of R.J. Reynolds Food Co. before establishing Jeno's Inc., which specialized in the finger-food snacks called pizza rolls. It grew to be Duluth's largest employer and was sold to Pillsbury in 1985.
