Michael 'Jim' Delligatti

PITTSBURGH — You probably haven’t heard his name, but you likely have devoured his creation: two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun. Michael James “Jim” Delligatti, the McDonald’s franchisee who created the Big Mac nearly 50 years ago, died Monday at home in Pittsburgh, family spokeswoman Kerry Ford said Wednesday. Delligatti was 98.

Until his health trailed off the last couple of years, Delligatti ate at least one 540-calorie Big Mac a week, his son Michael said.

Delligatti’s franchise was based in Uniontown, not far from Pittsburgh, when he invented the chain’s signature burger in 1967 after deciding customers wanted a bigger sandwich.

Michael Delligatti said McDonald’s executives told his father he could experiment with a bigger burger but only using products the restaurant already stocked.

“He was often asked why he named it the Big Mac, and he said because Big Mc sounded too funny,” Delligatti said.

Demand exploded as Delligatti’s sandwich spread to the rest of his 47 stores in Pennsylvania and was added nationally in 1968.

McDonald’s has sold billions of Big Macs since then. When the burger turned 40, McDonald’s estimated it was selling 550 million Big Macs a year.

Delligatti headed M&J Management, a four-generation family business and McDonald’s franchise organization for more than 60 years. In 1979, he co-founded Pittsburgh’s Ronald McDonald House, then the seventh such facility where families can stay when children travel to Pittsburgh for life-saving medical care.