1902–1987
Pine Hills Cemetery
Section 6 Lot 1449
Richard John Lucas was born in Toronto and began working at just six years old, delivering groceries from his parents’ general store on Gerrard Street East. By 1920, he had entered the meat packing business, selling products from a horse-drawn wagon along Coxwell Avenue. That same year, he married Isobel, and together, they raised five children.
Lucas’s career soared when he joined the Fuller Company on Carlaw Avenue, eventually becoming general manager and later purchasing the firm at the start of the Second World War. In the company’s test kitchen, Lucas revolutionized the Canadian dinner table by creating the sugared ham – a product so superior that competitors scrambled to replicate it. His brand, featuring a cheerful pig named Pinky and the slogan “R. J. Lucas, Selected Sugar Pact Hams,” became iconic. His Carlaw plant was adorned with Canadian flags and six-foot statues of Pinky, while his salesmen wore white lab coats, ties and Stetson hats to project quality and pride.
Richard Lucas, the man who turned sugared ham into a Canadian household favourite, passed away on April 13, 1987, at his winter home in Clearwater, Florida, at the age of 84.
Source:
• Mount Pleasant Group archives
Photo: Adobe stock
