St. Louis -- Warren M. Shapleigh, former president of U.S. pet food giant Ralston Purina Co, has died after a battle with neurological disease, his family said.
Shapleigh was 89 and a longtime resident of Ladue, Mo., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday.
Shapleigh served for four years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, working on a submarine chaser for three years near New Guinea before becoming an executive officer on a fleet tanker in the western Pacific, the newspaper said.
He joined Ralston Purina in 1961 and became president of the business in 1972.
