Donald Tober, whose Sugar Foods Corp. selling the sugar substitute Sweet’N Low and other restaurant supplies, died on Friday in what New York police described as suicide. He was 89 years old.
Mr. Tober, who had Parkinson’s disease, was married to Barbara Tober, a former editor at Bride magazine. They lived on Park Avenue in Manhattan and owned a horse farm in Dutchess County, New York. Mr. Tober has also had a thoroughbred named Sweet’N Low who competed in horse jumping events.
Mr. Tober and Stephen Odell owned Sugar Foods, founded in 1948 by Mr. Tober’s father, Harry Tober. The company originally sold sugar in 100-pound bags, but later found it much more profitable to sell it in small packages designed for restaurants and cafes. Sugar Foods did not manufacture Sweet’N Low, but made the brand’s pink packages a constant accessory in restaurants. In recent years, Sugar Foods has sold the sweetener brand N’Joy instead of Sweet’N Low.
Sweet’N Low, made with saccharin, was launched in 1957 by Cumberland Packing Corp. from Brooklyn, founded by Ben Eisenstadt. The name Sweet’N Low came from a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Donald Gibbs Tober was born in 1931 and grew up in New York. As a boy, he sometimes helped his father deliver sugar. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Harvard University. After working as a lawyer, he joined his father’s company in 1958.