Lynal A. ROOT

ROOT, MASSIE, SCHILDMEIER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 10/25/2006 at 12:15:12

MCDONALD'S EXEC LYNAL A. ROOT, 70

As a purchasing executive with McDonald's Corp. for 31 years, Lynal A. Root relied on his personal word and carefully cultivated relationships to reach agreements with suppliers, using handshake deals rather than formal contracts. Mr. Root was a major figure in developing the fast-food chain's unorthodox handshake approach, which the company still uses widely. His belief in such deals sprung from straightforward ethical standards, said his wife, Debbie. "He just expected you to do what you said you would do," Mrs. Root said.
Mr. Root, 70, a senior vice president at the Oak Brook-based company until his retirement in 1997, died Friday in Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. Born in Eagle Grove, Iowa, Mr. Root as a young man had hopes of becoming a Methodist preacher. But a lack of funds forced him to drop out of Miltonvale Theological College in Miltonvale, Kan. "Lynal would have made a good preacher if he had the money to stay there, but the Lord had something else for him to do," Debbie Root said. After working 18 years in the purchasing department of an Iowa packing company, a chance meeting led Mr. Root to apply for a job at McDonald's. On an airplane to Chicago for a different job interview, Mr. Root met a McDonald's employee who suggested that he interview with the fast food chain while he was in town. "I thought it would be a good interim place to work before I could find a good job," Mr. Root was quoted as saying in the company history, "McDonald's: Behind the Arches," by John F. Love. By 1969, Mr. Root had been promoted to U.S. purchasing director for the company. He became a vice president in 1973 and senior vice president in 1981.

Mr. Root had four children with his first wife, Betty, whom he married in 1948. After a second marriage, Mr. Root married his wife, Debbie, in 1983. The couple lived in Oak Brook. A company spokesman said Mr. Root and McDonald's founder Ray Kroc created the chain's no-contract supply system in the 1960s. The handshake arrangements represented relationships that were nurtured for decades. "If you pick the right suppliers and they trust you and you trust them, then you can work out your problems without the attorneys doing it for you," Mr. Root said in "Behind the Arches." The informal approach left the company open to some lawsuits. One long-running dispute over a handshake deal with an ice cream supplier led in 1984 to a well-publicized $52 million jury award--a figure that was later reduced--against McDonald's. But Mr. Root's close business relationships paid dividends. In 1973, he crisscrossed the country to procure beef, which had become increasingly scarce as a result of national price controls. Sales at McDonald's restaurants surged 15 percent, company officials said, as the stores became some of the few places where consumers could buy hamburgers. Company officials said Mr. Root also played a key role in the difficult task of maintaining a steady flow of supplies for McDonald's stores in Russia. After his retirement in 1997, Mr. Root and his wife, Debbie, started a Mail Boxes Etc. franchise business. She said her husband pursued few hobbies outside of work. "McDonald's was his entire life," she said. "He ate it, drank it, slept it. It was everything to him."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Root is survived by one son, Randall; three daughters, Kathy, Connie Schildmeier and Danie Massie; two stepchildren; 17 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; two brothers; and a sister. Visitation will be from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday in Gibbons Funeral Home, 134 S. York St., Elmhurst. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Oak Brook Community Church, 3100 Midwest Rd..

Chicago Tribune (IL)
November 20, 2000