Ray Kroc

Ray Kroc was an American businessman who transformed McDonald's into the world's most successful fast food corporation. He began as a milkshake mixer salesman before becoming the franchising agent for Richard and Maurice McDonald's San Bernardino restaurant in 1954, later purchasing the company from them in 1961 for $2.7 million. He served as president of McDonald's from 1955 to 1968 and as senior chairman until his death in 1984, and is best known for applying assembly-line methods and rigorous standardization to the restaurant franchise model. He was 52 years old when he first encountered the McDonald brothers' operation, which aligns with the known context about his age at the time.