Ralph Ketner

Following service in the Army in World War II, Ralph Ketner worked at 10 different jobs in three years. In 1957, with savings and money raised by selling shares to family and friends Ralph, aged 37, opened his first grocery store, Food Town, in Salisbury. He had learned the business from the ground up as a young boy and parlayed that experience into bilding one of the biggest supermarket chains in America. When he retired 34 years later, Food Lion was operating 800 stores and grossing $6.3 billion per year. People in Rowan County say that Ralph Ketner is responsible for creating more millionaires than anyone in our state. His retirement years have been spent in charitable endeavors including the establishment of the Ralph Ketner Employee Productivity Award for government employees. For his contributions to North Carolina we are proud to recognize Ralph Ketner of Salisbury as this week's NC Notable.

Previous NC Notables
06.30.2005 Thomas Hearn
06.23.2005 John Allison
06.16.2005 Jim Martin
06.02.2005 Darleen Johns
05.26.2005 Hugh Morton
05.19.2005 Bernie Mann
05.12.2005 Orrin H. Pilkey
05.05.2005 William Friday
04.28.2005 Annie Louise Wilkerson
04.21.2005 Martin Lancaster
04.14.2005 Shirley Caesar
04.07.2005 Carl Fox
03.31.2005 Bob Jordan
03.24.2005 Ann T. Denlinger