Tortilla Send-Off for Doritos Inventor

The family of Arch West, the marketing executive who came up with Doritos, will sprinkle his urn with the spicy tortilla chips when his ashes are laid to rest on Saturday in Texas.

"It's true, they are going to toss some Doritos in with him," funeral director Maria Estes of the Restland Funeral Home and Cemetery in Dallas, told AFP by telephone on Tuesday. "We're going to allow it."

West died September 22 in Dallas at the age of 97, his place in snack-food history secured by the success of the crunchy triangular chips that he first discovered in Mexico during a family vacation in the 1960s.

Frito-Lay, a unit of PepsiCo, now sells Doritos -- the first tortilla chip to be sold as a national brand -- in 20 countries and in 23 different flavors.

West's daughter Jana Hacker was quoted earlier in the Dallas Morning News that her father would be buried with a few handfuls of Doritos. "He'll love it," she said.

In May 2008, the ashes of another American marketing man, Fred Baur, at his request, were buried in his greatest creation -- the tubular Pringles potato chip container. He died at the age of 89 in Cincinnati, Ohio.