The New York Times-20080125-Rudolph R- Sprungli- 88- Heir To the Lindt Chocolate Empire- -Obituary -Obit--

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Rudolph R. Sprungli, 88, Heir To the Lindt Chocolate Empire; [Obituary (Obit)]

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Rudolph R. Sprungli, heir to a Swiss chocolate empire and head of the world-renowned Lindt & Sprungli business for more than two decades, died on Monday. He was 88.

His death was announced by the company.

Mr. Sprungli was owner and chairman of Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprungli A.G. during a decisive period of growth and expansion. He was born into the Lindt & Sprungli chocolate dynasty in 1920 and spent his entire working life with the family firm.

From 1971 to 1994, Mr. Sprungli was chairman of the executive board, the fifth generation of the family to hold the post.

Under his leadership, the company became one of the world's best-known premium chocolate producers, with a work force of 4,000. He made it a priority to keep the family firm, established in 1845, from being acquired by a mass-production multinational. He listed Lindt & Sprungli on the Swiss stock exchange in 1986.

Mr. Sprungli also had a reputation for fending off potential challenges to his supremacy by other family members, including his sons, Luzius and Rudolf.

The firm is more important than the family, he once said.

Mr. Sprungli made headline news in 1992 when he divorced his wife of 45 years, Elisabeth, and announced his plans to marry his 44-year-old personnel adviser, Alexandra Gantenbein, a member of an obscure American religious sect called Iam.

Mr. Sprungli called off the wedding at the last minute and hired an independent agency to establish whether the company had been infiltrated by sect followers. The company subsequently cleared Ms. Gantenbein and the couple then promptly married, infuriating some senior executives, who quit.

His wife survives him, along with his two sons and a daughter.

Mr. Sprungli named Ernst Tanner as his successor when he finally announced his retirement at age 74 in 1994, which was 13 years after first declaring he would stand aside.