The Randolph Society Foundation Board is pleased to announce that Don Welge, who took the helm of his family’s business as a young man and transformed it into a local cornerstone, will be inducted into the 2026 class of honorees.
Donald E. Welge was born in St. Louis on July 11, 1935. The eldest of three sons of William and Rudelle Welge, he was the descendent of entrepreneurs who had moved from Germany to Chester in the nineteenth century. His great-grandfather, Henry Gilster, arrived in Randolph County and set up a successful mercantile business on State Street.
Henry Gilster and his children expanded the family business, becoming owners and operators of the Buena Vista Mill in Chester and the Steeleville Milling Company. During Albert Gilster’s tenure as the owner of Steeleville’s mill, the company thrived, extending the market for its flour throughout southern Illinois and into several southern states. The elder of the Gilster sisters married Chester’s photographer, William Welge, and their elder son, Bill, followed his uncles into the family business. Eventually, Bill’s son, Don, followed the same path.
After graduating from high school, Don continued his studies in agriculture at Louisiana State University. During his time in Baton Rouge, he also worked for Gilster Milling Company as a salesman and a truck driver. He maintained strong ties with LSU long after receiving his degree in 1957, and today he is remembered with the university’s Welge Food Beyond the Farm Certificate Fund, which supports graduate studies in agribusiness.
Don returned to southern Illinois, where he married Mary Ann Childers and started a family of his own. Meanwhile, he joined the family company, helping to transition Gilster into a new mode of production. With flour sales flagging, Don supervised a pivot into the production of boxed cake mixes. These mixes, as well as products like macaroni and cheese, breakfast cereal, and popcorn, are now produced as private-label products for brands sold all over the country and around the world.
In 1965, Don was named president of the family company, which had merged with Martha White Foods several years earlier. Four years later, Don decided to embark on a new venture, leaving the company to form the Mary Lee Packaging Corporation. In 1971, the two companies reunited, becoming Gilster-Mary Lee. The family continued to shepherd the company into the future, with Don’s brother, Mike, and his sons, Rob and Tom, joining the family business.
Through numerous challenges, including fire and flood, Don continued to steer the company on a steady course. Today, Gilster-Mary Lee remains deeply embedded in the fabric of Randolph County, employing thousands of people in Chester and Steeleville, as well as across additional facilities in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Colorado.
Don took his responsibility as a leader in the community seriously, serving on numerous advisory boards and civic development committees. He supported educational initiatives at LSU and at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and he was a devoted leader of the Okaw Valley Boy Scout Council for more than 40 years. For decades, he could be found on Kaskaskia Island every Fourth of July, acting as emcee for the traditional patriotic celebrations there.
In the final years of his life, Don was also a strong advocate for the construction of a new Mississippi River bridge linking Chester and McBride. When the bridge is completed later this year, it will be officially named the Don Welge Memorial Bridge.
Don passed away in April 2020, one of the first local victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is remembered for his drive and his passion as well as his humility. “If I’ve accomplished anything,” he once reflected, it’s been getting people to work together toward a common goal.” For decades, he did just that.
The Randolph Society 