Paskey Dedomenico; Chocolate, Macaroni Magnate

Paskey Dedomenico, 78, a chocolate and macaroni magnate who made Rice-a-Roni. With his parents, Dedomenico turned a San Francisco neighborhood pasta-manufacturing firm, Golden Grain Macaroni Co., into an international food conglomerate. He became president of the firm in 1932, and moved to Seattle in 1941. In 1956, he bought Mission Macaroni Co. and, in 1959 introduced Rice-a-Roni, one of the first convenience food products in the United States. In 1960, Dedomenico bought the Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. in San Francisco. He added the Vernell Candy Co. of Seattle in 1976 and the Society Candy Co. of Bellevue in 1979. Quaker Oats Co. bought the food operations in 1986. In Seattle on Saturday.