Whataburger Inc.

Founder Harmon Dobson opened the first Whataburger in Corpus Christi. Immediately the restaurant was making hundreds of burgers a day at 30 cents a pop. Dobson quickly opened more Whataburgers and soon franchised; by 1959, he opened a Whataburger in Pensacola, Florida. Dobson kept tight control until he died in 1967 when a small plane he piloted crashed. From then on, his wife Grace took over leadership and stayed involved until her death in 2005. The Dobson children assumed leadership roles; Tom was CEO starting in 1993 until 2012. The Dobson family has a stake in the company and is still heavily involved.