Jeno F Paulucci

Paulucci founded Jeno’s Frozen Pizza to capitalize on the growing acceptance of frozen foods as alternatives for dinner. While there were many regional frozen pizza offerings, there was no national brand. Through low cost production processes and national advertising, Paulucci built Jeno’s Frozen Pizza into one of the largest frozen food operations in the United States; he sold it to Pillsbury in 1986. Jeno’s Pizza was Paulucci’s second success in the grocery retail trade business. Years earlier, he founded Chun King Corporation (later sold to R. J. Reynolds), which was the first nationally marketed canned Chinese food in the United States. The estate of famed Duluth businessman Jeno Paulucci and his wife, Lois, has been the subject of "long-standing, acrimonious and intensely litigated disputes" since the couple died four days apart in 2011. A settlement that went into effect in January2 019 closed the book on at least three dozen lawsuits and covered the fate of millions of dollars held in trusts, allegations of undue influence and other wrongdoing and even who gets possession of a handmade quilt and a painting. Then there's the millions spent on attorneys fighting over the estate for more than seven years. The settlement also sets up walls between the three Paulucci children: "Michael, Cynthia and their lineal descendants will not initiate contact with Gina, and Gina will not initiate contact with Michael, Cynthia or any of their lineal descendants."