H and H Coffee

Dedicated to the history of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. founded 1899 in San Antonio, Texas.

John C. Burkholder — Vice President of H & H Coffee Co. and long-serving member of its Board of Directors. He married a daughter of Gus P. Menger and Rose Lee Menger (named “Mrs. John C. Burkholder” in the 1955 Rose Lee Menger obituary), making him Gus Menger’s son-in-law.

Role at Hoffmann-Hayman

With the firm since 1945; previously served as General Sales Manager (documented September 1959). Elected Vice President in charge of sales at the May 4, 1960 leadership transition, taking charge of H&H’s entire sales territory: South Texas from Austin to the Rio Grande Valley.

A 1963 portrait caption identifies him as having been on the Board of Directors for fifteen years — placing his board entry around 1948, three years after joining the firm.

Notable: stayed through the 1962 Continental sale

Unlike T. J. Menger (retired 1962 at the sale) and Kearney Joseph Kivlin (retired at the sale), Burkholder continued on the Board of Directors after the 1962 Continental Coffee of Chicago acquisition — the 20 October 1963 San Antonio Light “director portrait” attestation lands ~16 months post-sale. That makes Burkholder one of the few non-Menger officers who served continuously through the H&H → Continental / Master Chef Food Products corporate transition. Whether he was retained because of his sales-network value to Continental, the Menger-family connection (son-in-law of Gus P. Menger), or both is undocumented. The current period upper bound (c.1964) reflects the absence of a 1965+ attestation; whether he overlapped with the Jack Moore / Warren Burns Master Chef Food Products leadership documented in December 1966 is the next bracket worth closing.

See also