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A wealthy 89-year-old sweetener tycoon who made Sweet’N Low a household name committed suicide by jumping from his Park Avenue building, police sources told the Post.
Donald Tober, CEO and Sugar Foods co-owner of 1,400 New York-based employees, jumped to his death just after 5 am on Friday, and was found in the courtyard of the luxurious Upper East Side building between 65th and 66th streets , the sources said.
He was battling Parkinson’s disease, the sources said.
Ahead of Sugar Foods, Tober transformed the company’s flagship product, Sweet’N Low, and its ubiquitous pink packages, into a mainstay on kitchen counters and restaurant tables across the country, along with Sugar in the Raw and N ‘ Joy nondairy creamer.
Donald Tober and Susan Gutfreund during Casita Maria’s 2019 party at The Plaza on October 15, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Gonzalo Marroquin / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
“Basically, we are concerned with everything that involves the cup of coffee,” Tober told Restaurant News in 1995. “We are very focused.”
In the mid-1990s, about 80% of food service establishments used Sweet’N Low; the sweetener also commanded more than 80 percent of the sugar substitute market, Restaurant News reported.
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“Donald IS Sweet’N Low,” said Sugar Foods President Steve Odell to the magazine.
“Don had as much to do with building Sweet’N Low in a household name as anyone has ever done with a product. Each packet of Sweet’N Low sold today can be traced back to a single sales visit he probably made or at least attended. “
Odell told the Post that he had been Tober’s partner for 51 years.
“He was bigger than life,” said Odell. “He made everyone feel special – everyone. He’s an icon and always will be. “
Tober was battling a “devastating” illness, “especially for someone as active as he is,” added Odell.
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Still, the suicide was a shock.
“I spoke to him yesterday and I certainly didn’t. There was no indication. “
A Harvard Law School graduate, Tober was president of The Culinary Institute of America and founder of City Meals-on-Wheels.
He was the husband of Barbara Tober, who worked for three decades as chief editor of Brides magazine and was former chairman of the board of curators at the Manhattan Museum of Arts and Design. The couple lived on the 11th floor of the building.
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