In his youth, Mayer spent much of his time helping out in the Chicago store his father established, and his sausage-packing plant nearby.
In 1919, Mayer oversaw the acquisition of a meat-packing plant in Madison, Wisconsin, that became the firm's major processing facility (and later the site of its corporate headquarters), growing the Madison unit to employ 3,000 to 4,000 workers by the time of his death.
Mayer was named as the firm's president in 1928, and served in that role until March 1955 when he was appointed as the company's chairman.
He was a longtime participant in the Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry, serving as its president from 1938 to 1940.
[1] Mayer died at age 76 on March 5, 1965, almost 10 years after his father, at his home in Evanston, Illinois.