William Galt Founded Good Earth Restaurants to Promote Unprocessed Food

By James R. Hagerty 

William Galt, a restaurateur, noticed a disturbing trend as he neared 40. "Many of my best friends in the food business were dropping dead in their 40s from heart attacks," he told the San Diego Tribune later.

Mr. Galt blamed restaurant food. That theory helped convince him to found a health-food restaurant chain, Good Earth, in 1975. Offering whole-grain breads, fruit, vegetables and modest portions of lean meat, he aimed to find a middle ground between mainstream restaurants and vegetarian eateries run by hippies. Apple founder Steve Jobs was widely reported to have been an early customer.

After expanding to about 15 locations in California and several other states, Mr. Galt sold the business to General Mills Inc. in 1980. General Mills concluded growth prospects were limited and in the mid-1980s converted many of the outlets into Red Lobsters or Olive Gardens. The rest of the business was sold to franchisees. Two Good Earth restaurants remain in the Minneapolis area.

Mr. Galt tried unsuccessfully to launch a fast-food chain featuring healthful choices. He set up centers promoting exercise and dietary regimens. In recent years, he lived in Mexico and helped organic farmers find markets.

He died Aug. 2 in Reno, Nev., of complications from a broken hip. He was 89.

Six-foot-four and lean, Mr. Galt was ahead of his time in spotting a market opportunity in natural ingredients and never lost his devotion to unprocessed foods. He hiked, swam in the Pacific Ocean and used an antigravity contraption that, he said, promoted spinal health, circulation and perhaps even hair growth.

William Andrew Galt Jr., whose ancestors included Cherokee Native Americans, was born May 31, 1929. His parents owned a dairy farm in Cartersville, Ga., and ran a restaurant and lodge on an Indian reservation in North Carolina.

He attended the University of Miami but didn't graduate. According to family legend, he and some of his fraternity brothers once hijacked an ROTC tank and drove it across campus.

Mr. Galt headed west and became a manager at Lawry's restaurant, a rib specialist, in Los Angeles. He was then recruited to set up restaurants at the Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nev. While in Nevada, he met Harland Sanders, the founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken business. Mr. Galt befriended Col. Sanders and was an early adopter of his chicken pressure cookers and blend of herbs and spices.

Though known for greasy breaded chicken, Col. Sanders "primarily ate fresh fruit and vegetables, very little chicken," Mr. Galt told the San Diego Tribune in 1985. The colonel's eating habits helped inspire Mr. Galt to promote more nutritious meals.

A Democrat and peace campaigner, Mr. Galt served on the city council in Sparks in the mid-1960s and made unsuccessful runs for U.S. senator and lieutenant governor in Nevada before focusing on health and nutrition.

He is survived by Gail Weaver, an exercise physiologist who ran obesity-treatment programs. They married in 2004 and lived in Mérida in the Mexican state of Yucatán in recent years. An earlier marriage, to Nancy O'Donnell, who helped found Good Earth, ended in divorce. Mr. Galt is also survived by four children and two grandchildren.

At the two surviving Good Earth restaurants in the Minneapolis area, the menu has evolved over the decades. But Donna Fahs, chief operating officer of Parasole Restaurant Holdings, which owns those outlets, said the most popular menu item dates to Mr. Galt's era: cashew chicken salad.

Ms. Fahs first worked for Good Earth in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1979 as a part-time hostess and later was a general manager. She recalled Mr. Galt as an energetic "health nut" who combined beans and brown rice to provide essential proteins. "At the time, nobody knew what an adzuki bean was," she said, but Good Earth served them.

Though the restaurants are very popular, she said, the need to chop and clean fresh ingredients raises labor costs, while the average check total is relatively small, partly because regulars tend to order Good Earth tea rather than beer or wine.

Write to James R. Hagerty at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 17, 2018 10:44 ET (14:44 GMT)

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