Remembering Jim Marker, who made Cheezies a Canadian staple

Fans of quintessentially Canadian snack food brand Cheezies may want to raise an orangey, powder-caked hand in salute to Jim Marker.

The Ohio-born farmer who invented the cheesy snacks passed away Tuesday at his home in Belleville, Ont. He was 90.

As the Globe and Mail notes, Marker devised an extruder in the 1940s as a way to preserve corn and feed his herd of cattle all year round. Once it passed through the contraption, the corn would transform into a series of airy, finger-shaped sticks.

W.T. Hawkins, the Chicago confectioner who at the time ran one of the largest snack food companies in the world, got wind of Marker's new corn creation and convinced him to develop it into a salty treat.

Marker joined the W.T. Hawkins Limited team in 1948 and with a little (OK, a lot of) oil, salt, and cheddar, the Cheezie was born.

So how did this U.S. confection end up becoming a Canadian staple?

On CBC's Sunday Edition, Kent Hawkins, grandson of W.T. and current president and CEO of the company, explained that a number of bad business moves forced Hawkins Ltd. to shutter its doors in the U.S. and head north to Tweed, Ont., where Marker had been sent in 1949 to set up a manufacturing plant on northern soil.

In 1956, the small Tweed factory burned down and Hawkins Ltd. relocated to Belleville, which to this day remains the Cheezies World Headquarters.

It was in Belleville that Hawkins and Marker rebuilt the company by focusing on the red-and-white-striped bags of cheddary goodness that has become a mainstay on Canadian shelves.

The family-run business took pride in using all-natural ingredients which, although not exactly good for you, made Cheezies slightly healthier than their chemical-laden counterparts.

And unlike competing brands Frito Lay (Cheetos) and Old Dutch (Cheese sticks), Hawkins refused to splash out millions on marketing or pay top dollar to place their product on the coveted eye-level section of supermarket shelves.

Instead, Kent Hawkins told CBC they rely on word of mouth — literally. "If you get our product in someone's mouth, that's our advertising," he said.

While Cheetos and Old Dutch outsell them eight-to-one, Cheezies' cult-like following (particularly on the east coast) means something in the powdery mix is working.

So despite their bottom-shelf designation, Marker's cheese concoctions continue to be one of Canada's enduring success stories.

As for the man himself, Marker was described as a tough guy with a caring nature. "He could be hard, but deep down, he really cared about the people who worked for him," Kent Hawkins told the Globe. "He was kind of a rough, tough creampuff."

Much like the confection itself. Though Marker never married or had children, he's survived by millions of satisfied snack lovers across the country.