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‘Hot-dog’ Catholic – knelt before Christ ‘til the end
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February 1, 2021Carl N. Karcher (1917-2008), founder and CEO of one of the nation’s largest fast food chains, Carl’s Jr., was an unabashed Catholic – a daily communicant, man of prayer, and avid supporter of religious, pro-life, and politically conservative causes. He began his enterprise with a $326 hot dog cart in Los Angeles in 1941, which grew to more than 1,000 U.S. locations, and restaurants in 28 countries.
Farm-work ethic
Karcher grew up as one of eight children on an Ohio farm, where he learned the importance of a hard day’s work. He recalled, “We knew what it was to work long hours. Bed the horses down, feed the horses, feed the cattle, feed the hogs, watch the sheep—we had quite a daily routine.”
He also learned the value of a positive attitude. He explained, “Can’t did not exist in our vocabulary. We always believed it can be done. There’s a big difference between ‘can do’ and ‘can’t do.’”
Although he attended public school, he went faithfully to Saturday catechism and Sunday Mass, where he learned “to love Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Karcher quit school in the 8th grade, and with the encouragement of his father, headed to southern California in 1937. His uncle, Ben Karcher, owned the Karcher Feed and Seed Store in Anaheim. Carl recalled, “He told me to go to J.C. Penney and buy myself a pair of khaki pants and be at work the next day at 6 a.m. I worked 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. four days a week and 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. two days a week. That adds up to 72 hours a week. I was paid $18 a week. In those days [of the Great Depression] you didn’t ask about pay—you were glad you had the job. Three years later he went to work for the Armstrong Bakery in Los Angeles, wrapping bread and delivering bread. It was while on the bread route that he met the man who would sell him his now-famous hot dog cart, and four years later, in 1945, he would open his first restaurant in Anaheim. Had it not been for his time at the bakery, he mused, “I might still be in the feed business, feeding the cows and chickens and hogs.”
God-centered living
Karcher joined St. Boniface Church in Anaheim, a historic parish established in 1860, and remained a prominent parishioner throughout his life. Anaheim was a community of 13,000 when he arrived—it has 350,000 today—and much of the area in the 1930s was covered with orange groves.
February It was at St. Boniface that he met his wife Margaret Heinz (1917-2006). The couple wed in 1939 and would have 12 children – nine daughters and three sons. He bought a home near the parish in 1949, where he would live throughout his life, and he established the Carl’s Jr. headquarters nearby with a St. Francis of Assisi statue prominently at its entrance. (Karcher was known for handing out coupons for a free Carl’s hamburger placed inside a prayer card with the prayer of St. Francis.)
Family not without trials
His family offered him the love and support he needed throughout his life, he said, although family life was not without its trials. Two of his children contracted polio 13 months apart, and a third had a serious bout with a nervous system disease. Karcher said, “It was during these times that we would do a lot of praying.”
Karcher was pleased when one of his sons, Jerome, was ordained a priest in 1983. He has served as pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Huntington Beach since 1995. Father described his father as “a man of faith — a deep, abiding, penetrating faith in a God who directed and guided him through the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church.”
Karcher was devoted to the Eucharist, receiving Communion daily at the St. Boniface 6:30 a.m. Mass and praying a variety of novenas and devotions before coming to work. In the evening, the family would say the rosary, Fr. Karcher recalled, which “influenced my own devotion to the rosary and of the Blessed Mother’s maternal intercession in my life and priesthood.”
Even while dying of Parkinson’s disease, Karcher insisted on kneeling during the consecration at Mass, Father recalled, “knowing he was in the presence of Jesus. This humility before God was a great grace in his life.”
Cause close to his heart
As Karcher’s business grew, it gave him the resources he needed to support causes dear to his heart, chief among them the Right to Life. He explained, “I maintain that from the time of conception there is a life in the womb. That is God’s doing. People must know I’m a pro-lifer having 12 children. It is difficult for me to understand how anyone can think the contrary.”
He disapproved of the permissive attitudes that became widespread in American society in the ‘60s and ‘70s, which were at odds with the morality of the Ten Commandments with which he was raised. He opined, “With our lifestyle today, anything goes. You hear about premarital sex and the like, which is unfortunate.”
He was not shy about promoting his religious beliefs, and, in fact, in 1978 helped fund the unsuccessful Briggs Initiative, which would have banned public homosexuals or those who advocated homosexuality from working at California’s public schools. The gay rights lobby would never forgive him.
Karcher’s public conservatism sometimes drew protestors when he gave public speeches, such as one he gave in 1990 at Loyola Marymount University. When he arrived in the LMU hall, “I looked through the windows and I could see all these big posters saying, ‘Carl Karcher, Ku Klux Klan’ ‘Carl Karcher this and Carl Karcher that.’ I have had a lot of that in my lifetime, but I still keep my head high because I take pride in what I stand for.”
He also had many supporters; at the LMU talk, for example, an animal rights activist challenged him about the morality of killing cows to make Carl’s hamburgers. He replied, “We can learn from Jesus’ example. [We know he ate fish from the Sea of Galilee and] can consider fish as animals. Therefore, God must have given us all these animals to feed us, His people.” After his response, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.
Averting crooked business
And, while bribery of public officials may be common in some parts of the business world, Karcher said he adamantly refused to participate in such a practice. If such requests were made of him, he said, he’d simply respond, “I don’t understand.”
He said he began this practice in 1941, when he was operating his hot dog cart. A health inspector met with him one day, and in the course of their conversation, dropped the hint, “This Christmas, I could use a case of booze.”
Karcher recalled he replied, “A case of booze? I don’t understand.” The inspector responded, “A case of liquor,” to which Karcher replied, “I still don’t understand.”
Karcher reflected, “I give my dad a lot of credit for raising this 24-year-old guy to stand up to this man who could have closed him down right there.”
JIM GRAVES is a Legatus magazine contributing writer.
