MINNEAPOLIS – Robert D. Goldberger, owner of Goldberger Foods, Inc. (GFI) died June 22 from heart disease. He was 75.

Goldberger founded the company in 1974 with his brother, Howard. At one time, GFI operated two beef slaughter facilities, and employed 1,000 people. The company, which is still family owned and operated, makes and sells specialty and value-added meat products.

In an obituary published in Lean Trimmings, the joint newsletter of the North American Meat Association, Goldberger was described as “a colorful, charismatic man who was part of the fabric of the changing beef business in the later decades of the 20th century.”