Robert McGarvey Jr.; Led Coffee Company

Robert McGarvey Jr., 71, a master of specialty coffees long before coffee shops became popular. By 15, McGarvey began working for the company founded by his father in 1922, the Minneapolis-based McGarvey Coffee. He started out unloading green coffee and learning to roast coffee beans. The company, with McGarvey as president after 1962 and chief executive after 1985, was one of the first to offer specialty and gourmet brands of coffee. It became one of the nation’s largest regional coffee companies, with distribution in 11 states. On Thursday in Minneapolis, of heart complications.