The woman behind the McDonald’s mastermind was a saint (2024)

The man behind McDonald’s was a larger-than-life, almost mythical figure. Ray Kroc, a conservative salesman, helped brothers Dick and Mac McDonald franchise their fast-food burger stand, eventually buying them out and transforming a nearly bankrupt small business into a global brand.

While many are familiar with the story of the man who made the McDonald’s fortune, most have not heard about the woman who gave most of that money away. Joan Kroc, Ray’s third wife, an erstwhile co*cktail pianist, inherited $500 million when Ray died in 1984 — and donated millions when she died two decades later.

Ray and Joan are getting a lot of buzz these days: The movie “The Founder,” starring Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc and Linda Cardellini as Joan, opens Jan. 20. Last fall, the book “Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald’s Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away” by Lisa Napoli (Dutton) focused on Joan, telling the incredible tale of the woman who once described herself as a “maverick salvationist.”

And maverick she was: Napoli paints a picture of a Givenchy-wearing, jewel-clad character who did what she wanted and had fun doing it.

Her marriage to Ray, whom she met at a St. Paul, Minn., dinner club in 1957 when both were already married, was not a smooth one. They finally wed in 1969, but Ray had a drinking problem and a strong temper that led her to file for divorce just two years later. They mysteriously reconciled, but the drinking would poison their marriage until his death in the mid-’80s. When he died, Joan was suddenly fantastically rich — and free to do with all this money as she saw fit.

“Becoming caretaker of the fortune was, in a way, Joan’s reward for having endured life with Ray,” writes Napoli.

At the height of the AIDS crisis, Joan contributed millions of dollars to research. When a flood destroyed much of Grand Forks, ND, Joan contributed $15 million in relief funds under the stipulation that she remain completely anonymous. (Townspeople would refer to their benefactor as “the Angel of Grand Forks.”)

“She was interested in sponsoring people who were doing things she thought were great,” Napoli tells The Post. “If she met you on a plane or saw a news story that would pierce your heart, she would often get out her checkbook.”

For years after Ray’s death, she gave millions of dollars in mostly anonymous donations to homeless centers, substance-abuse organizations, theaters, hospitals, domestic-abuse shelters, Greenpeace, medical research and the Democratic party.

She died in her own bed on Oct. 12, 2003, surrounded by her daughter and granddaughters. Weeks later, the details of her will would be unveiled. She left $1.5 billion to the Salvation Army, the largest gift ever given to the charitable organization by far. She also left $190 million to NPR, but the sum would reach $225 million by the time the gift was delivered. (“Is that the silver club or the gold club?” joked the co-executor of the will.) The list went on and on: “Sixty million dollars to be spread among the 120 Ronald McDonald Houses . . . Fifty million dollars apiece to each of the two peace centers Joan had built . . . Twenty million dollars to San Diego Hospice. $10 million each to the [San Diego] zoo and the opera she’d once walked out on . . .” And that’s just a partial list.

“He would be remembered for hamburgers, as it should be,” writes Napoli. “But she, at least, wanted the name Kroc to be remembered for giving.”