Peter Folger

:"For Ben Franklin's grandfather, see Peter Foulger"Peter Folger (December 26, 1905- August 27, 1980) was an American coffee heir, socialite, and member of the prominent United States Folger family. He was also the long time Chairman of the board and President at the Folgers Coffee Company. He is the great-grandson of founder J. A. Folger, and the father of Manson murder victim Abigail Folger.

Born and raised in California, Folger studied business and graduated from Yale University where he was an athlete on their football, track and field, and polo teams.

Peter Folger later served in World War II as a Marine Major.

He married twice in his life. The first being to Inez Mejia, the daughter of a prestigious California land grant family. In 1952 Peter and Inez were divorced. Together they had two children, Abigail and Peter Jr.

On June 30, 1960, he married his 24-year-old private secretary Beverly Mater, against the Folger family's wishes, and had one daughter with her in 1961. Peter and Beverly lived with their daughter at the Folger mansion located in Woodside, California.

In 1963, after having helped to build the family firm into the third largest coffee wholesaler in the United States, Folger sold the company to Procter & Gamble for 1,650,000 shares of P&G common stock. However, he and the Folger family continued to operate Folgers as a P&G subsidiary.

Folger died in Redwood City, California at the age of 74 on August 27, 1980 and was buried in the Folger family plot at Mountain View Cemetery, in Oakland, California.