Edward J. Piszek

Founded Mrs. Paul ' s seafood brand; 87

Edward J. Piszek, who once made too many deviled crab cakes for a local bar and threw the extras in a freezer, an accident that led to a frozen seafood empire, Mrs. Paul ' s Kitchens, died March 27 at his home in Fort Washington, Pa. He was 87.

The cause was bone cancer, said his son, Edward Jr.

Mr. Piszek ' s fish story began in 1946 when he was on strike from his job at the General Electric plant in Philadelphia. He and a friend took over the food concession in a local taproom, and his deviled crab cakes became the house favorite.

" One Friday I prepared 172 and we only sold 50, " he said in an interview with Forbes in 1978. " There was a freezer in back of the tap, so we threw ' em in there. It was either that or the garbage can. "

When the crab cakes were retrieved a week later, the customers said they tasted fine. Before long, Mr. Piszek (pronounced PEE-zeck) and a friend, John Paul, a bread salesman, each came up with $350 and went into the frozen seafood business.

Mr. Piszek bought out Paul in the 1950s, and he sold the business to the Campbell Soup Co. in 1982 for as much as $70 million, according to a report in Business Week at the time.

His personal investments were large and varied. In the late 1970s, he was Chrysler ' s largest private shareholder, according to Forbes. He was known for his effusive personality, and he cheerfully submitted to being called " the Fishcake King " and " the Big Fishcake. "

Mr. Piszek ' s philanthropy was similarly outsize, particularly for causes related to his Polish heritage.

He gave millions to battle tuberculosis in Poland and started the Copernicus Society to honor Polish achievements. He bought the Philadelphia house where Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the Polish statesman who aided the American Revolution, once lived, and donated it to the National Park Service.

His donations to Little League Baseball in Poland made Kutno, Poland, the league ' s European training center. In the 1970s, he spent $500,000 on a national newspaper advertising campaign to promote awareness of Polish culture.

Edward John Piszczek was born Oct. 24, 1916, in Chicago. In his 20s, he legally shortened his name a bit in a measured response to what he considered American sensibilities. His mother ' s urgings that he name his company Piszek ' s Kitchens were unsuccessful.

The family moved from Chicago to a farm near Quakertown, Pa., and then to Philadelphia, where his father opened a grocery store. Mr. Piszek later earned a degree in business administration by attending the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in the evenings.

One of his early jobs was as a salesman for Campbell Soup. He did not make more than a dollar an hour until he was 30 and hit upon the idea of selling frozen fish.

Frozen seafood had been around since the 1920s, the trade journal Frozen Food Age said in 1992. The journal said Mr. Piszek was part of a general swing in the industry to cooked seafood, leading the trend with forceful advertising campaigns that made Mrs. Paul ' s fish sticks a household name.

Mr. Piszek ' s wife, the former Olga Pauline McFadden, died in 1993, and his daughter Ann Louise Reitenbaugh died last year.

He is survived by a daughter, Helen Nelson of Fort Washington; sons, Edward Jr. of Gwynedd Valley, Pa., George of Lafayette Hill, Pa., and William of Lower Gwynedd, Pa.; 13 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.