The man who gave us Vegemite - a product destined to become a part of the Australian ethos.

Cyril Percy Callister was born on 16 February 1893 at Chute, near Ballarat. He was one of nine children. The family moved to Yendon where his early schooling took place. He completed his secondary studies at Ballarat and won a Government Exhibition to the University of Melbourne and a Major residential scholarship to Queens College. In 1913 he successfully completed his Bachelor of Science degree. The following March he took his final honours in Chemistry and the Dixson Final Honours Exhibition.

Callister continued his studies at the University until the end of 1914, the year World War I broke out. In January 1915, he started working for Lewis & Whitty who manufactured some food products, but mainly concentrated on household lines. Callister enlisted in June 1915 and was sent to Britain with other young Australian chemists to make explosives.

In August 1919, he married a Scottish girl, Katherine Hope Mundell. They returned to Melbourne and Callister worked again for Lewis & Whitty.

On 16 February 1923, he was appointed chief chemist to Fred Walker & Co Pty Ltd, food manufacturers. Fred Walker's brief to Callister was to produce a yeast extract. That same year he began work on spent brewer's yeast from Carlton & United Brewries. In addition to his work with yeast, he began to experiment with cheese processing. Callister found a reference to JL Kraft's patent. He successfully made cheese according to the patent and informed Fred Walker. Walker left for America in August 1925 to negotiate with JL Kraft for the rights to processed cheese in Australia under the Kraft patent.

The Kraft Walker Cheese Company Pty Ltd was registered in May 1926. Callister was the key technical man. Callister became expertly informed in the microbiology of yeast and cheese. In 1931 he made his submission for the degree of Doctor of Science.

Dr Cyril Percy Callister died on 5 October 1949 of a coronary attack. He had contributed much to the Kraft Walker Company: his innovation, his emphasis on quality control, the demonstration of the value of research in the food industry, his encouragement to his staff. He was an idealist, but also a practical man. He aimed to develop a quality product, which would serve a useful purpose to those who used it. His greatest attributes were his professional excellence and his high personal integrity.