S. Stern; Created Packages for Nabisco

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Sydney S. Stern, designer of the original Ritz Crackers box who also revamped the Animal Crackers package with its brightly colored caged lions, tigers and bears, has died at age 99.

The artist died of heart failure June 5 at Palms of Pasadena Hospital in St. Petersburg, where he lived.

Stern, who trained as an artist, went to work in 1923 for the National Biscuit Co., where he designed cartoons, wrappers and boxes.

He also put the cracker on the Uneeda biscuit box and helped design the Shredded Wheat box.

He began painting in water colors as a boy and then studied at the Art Students League, Columbia University and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He also was a photographer and set designer.