Richard Zacharias; Made the Dove Bar Into Household Name

Richard Zacharias, a businessman who fell in love with the Dove ice cream bar when one was served to him at his country club years ago and in 1984 acquired a half interest in the firm and brought it to national attention, died Wednesday in Los Angeles.

His daughter, Nancy Freedman, at whose home he died, said her father had been battling cancer for two years. He was 75.

Owner of hospitals and manufacturing and clothing firms in the Chicago area, Zacharias brought his business and production acumen to the Dove bar after buying 50% of the firm from the Stefanos family. The family had concocted the ice cream bar in 1939 to keep their own children from chasing after the neighborhood ice cream truck.

Zacharias stepped in and transformed the company in less than a year from a back-room operation that hand-dipped 500 bars a day in a pot of warm chocolate into a $2-million ice cream plant with a capacity of 72,000 bars a day.

A year later the company was sold to the M&M Mars candy company with Zacharias remaining as a consultant.

His success was written about in publications ranging from the New York Times to People magazine.

Owner of Precision Plating Co. of Chicago, he became a president of the National Assn. of Metal Finishers. His philanthropies included the Chicago Hearing Society.

Survivors include his wife, Beverly, his daughter, sons Steven and Daniel and six grandchildren.

Memorial services will be held in Glencoe, Ill.