SALT LAKE CITY — The name William Turnier may not be widely known, but his work is instantly recognizable to millions of Americans — every time they twist open an Oreo cookie.
“I was reading Mental Floss, an online magazine, and it had this unique item about Salt Lake City's history,” said historian Rachel Quist. “ I learned about William Turnier, the designer of the artwork of the Oreo cookie, and that he's buried here in Salt Lake City."
FOX 13 Digital Reporter Shanti Lerner met up Quist, to visit the grave at Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake City.
Quist was able to find the exact location of the grave marker through the website Find a Grave.
Turnier’s grave, located in the northeast quadrant of the cemetery, is marked by a flat, rose-colored stone. Fittingly, it bears an engraving of an Oreo cookie.
Who was William A. Turnier?
Born in Edgewater, New Jersey, in 1908, Turnier began working at the National Biscuit Company — now known as Nabisco — in 1923. The Oreo had already been in production since 1912.
"In 1952, he had been promoted up from the mailroom into the engineering department," Quist said. " And he was tasked with making the cookie design more complex."
Turnier also created the familiar waffle pattern used on Nutter Butter cookies. According to Quist, his work blended precise engineering with artistic design, long before computer-aided drafting.
Quist shared an original engineering illustration of the Oreo redesign.
“This would probably be done in CAD (Computer-Aided Design) today, but back then it was all hand-drawn,” she said. “It’s both art and engineering.”
Turnier eventually settled in Salt Lake City seven years after retiring from Nabisco. He died in 2004.
Though his name isn’t widely known, his legacy lives on in every package of Oreos sold.
“What really struck me about William is that his job was STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art, and math — all rolled into one,” Quist said. “You’re eating an Oreo cookie, and someone had to design that. That was somebody’s job. How cool is that?”
