John Thompson Dorrance (November 11, 1873 – September 21, 1930) was an American chemist and businessman who developed commercially available condensed soup. He served as president of the Campbell Soup Company from 1914 to 1930.
Early life and education
Dorrance was born November 11, 1873, in Bristol, Pennsylvania. He attended the Rugby Academy in Philadelphia and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1895 where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.[1] He received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1897. He worked in several restaurants in Paris, learned about soup flavorings, and had the idea to prepare and package soup in condensed form.
Career
He declined offers to teach chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, Columbia University, Cornell University, and University of Göttingen, and chose a job as a chemist with the Joseph Campbell Preserve Company that his uncle owned. He implemented his idea to pack soup in a condensed form. This process kept the flavor of the soup but reduced the weight and bulk of water and therefore saved on container sizes and shipping costs.[2]