Donald Tober, whose Sugar Foods Corp. marketed the Sweet’N Low sugar substitute and other restaurant supplies, died Friday in what New York police described as suicide. He was 89.
Mr. Tober, who had Parkinson’s disease, was married to Barbara Tober, a former editor of Bride magazine. They lived on Park Avenue in Manhattan and owned a horse farm in New York’s Dutchess County. Mr. Tober also once 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 that it was much more profitable to sell it in small packages intended for restaurants and cafes. Sugar Foods did not produce Sweet’N Low, but made the brand’s pink packages a fixture in restaurants. Sugar Foods has sold the sweetener brand N’Joy in place of Sweet’N Low in recent years.
Sweet’N Low, made with saccharin, was introduced 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 has a bachelor’s 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.