Art Oberto, Seattle's sausage and jerky king, dies at 95
Art Oberto wasn’t satisfied with regular pens. He had to carry four-color pens, usually four at a time, that he would give out to anyone he met, even though the inscription identified the recipient as a thief. “Stolen from Art ‘Oh Boy’ Oberto,” each pen was labeled. “Have fun now!”
Oberto loved a gimmick, whether it was handing out pens, or wearing in public the same red, white and green paper hat that his employees wore in his jerky factory, or driving the “Jerky Mobile,” a 1950s Lincoln also painted red, white and green — the colors of the Italian flag, and the Seattle company he built from the time he was a teenager.
“He was happier than anyone I had ever met,” longtime friend David Williams said. “He had a really good grasp on what life was about. He ran a large company, but he always told me everything you do has got to be good for everyone involved, or it’s not worth doing.”
Arthur Oberto, a Seattle fixture who grew his father’s sausage business into a multimillion-dollar company that was at one point the largest producer of beef jerky in the U.S., died Friday at his assisted-living apartment in Seattle. He was 95.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obituaries/art-oberto-seattles-oh-boy-fixture-dies-at-95/