Quaker Steak co-founder Gary Meszaros dies

Gary Meszaros, co-founder and executive vice president of Quaker Steak & Lube, died this afternoon.

Meszaros, also known as “Moe,” was a Vietnam veteran, former chairman of the Mercer County Salvation Army Board, and honorary chairman of the 2011 and 2013 Red Kettle Campaigns.

He co-founded Quaker Steak in 1974 with boyhood friend George Warren, in an abandoned gas station Sharon, Pa. They later expanded the popular eatery to Boardman, Austintown, and other locations and franchises in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and across the country, eventually creating a holding company to oversee the growing operation.

Meszaros and Warren also were the driving force behind Sharon’s long-popular Small Ships Revue, an idea they brought back from a New York event.

No other information was available on his death or arrangements tonight.