This is a story of small-town ingenuity and a Clearfield County product that is known throughout the world.
Clearfield Cheese Co. (a.k.a. the cheese plant) was started by William D. Tate and his brother J. Hamer Tate in 1941 in the old Sheffield Farms Milk plant in Curwensville.
This local company grew to be the second-largest cheese producer in the world by the 1970’s, second only to Kraft.
Clearfield Cheese Co. is best known for introducing the world to individually wrapped slices of cheese.
This 1950’s innovation was developed by Arnold Nawrocki, who up to that time had been working for Swift in Chicago.
He pitched the idea to his former employer and was turned down. Nawrocki resigned from his former employer and accepted a position with Clearfield Cheese a few months later.
It was here in Clearfield County that Nawrocki and team members from the cheese plant brought the idea to fruition.
The original machinery ordered for production of individually-wrapped slices came from Philadelphia.
However, when the specially-made equipment from the city arrived, it failed.
Determined, Clearfield Cheese turned to local machinists, hiring a team of the area’s precision-focused individuals who worked closely with Nawrocki to engineer the company’s own equipment in the machine shop of the cheese plant.
Hard work and innovation of people from Clearfield County brought this new idea to life and the individually-wrapped slice was born, revolutionizing the cheese industry.
With a visit to any grocery store, local innovation can be seen in every package of individually-wrapped slice of cheese.
Clearfield Cheese was purchased by Schreiber foods in 1985 and local production ceased by 1988. Although production is no longer in Clearfield County, the brand lives on and Clearfield Cheese is sold at deli counters and stores throughout the United States.
