[6] When he was 18, Popeil attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he joined Alpha Epsilon Pi before withdrawing after six months.

[7] After returning from college, Popeil continued to work and learn from his father, who was also an inventor and salesman of numerous kitchen-related gadgets, such as the Chop-O-Matic and the Veg-O-Matic.

[citation needed] He became the recipient of the Electronic Retail Association's Lifetime Achievement award in 2001[13] and he is listed in the Direct Response Hall of Fame.

a member of the advisory board for University of California, Los Angeles' Business, Management, and Legal Programs.

Among the better known and more successful are the Chop-O-Matic hand food processor ("Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to show you the greatest kitchen appliance ever made ... All your onions chopped to perfection without shedding a single tear.

Popeil is also well known for his housewares inventions like his Giant Dehydrator and Beef Jerky Machine, his Electric Pasta Maker and his Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ.

[18] After retiring, Popeil continued to invent products including the 5-in-1 Turkey Fryer & Food Cooking System which he had been developing for over ten years.

Popeil's success in infomercials, memorable marketing personality, and ubiquity on American television have allowed him and his products to appear in a variety of popular media environments including cameo appearances on television shows such as The X-Files,[a] Futurama,[b][c] King of the Hill,[d][e] The Simpsons,[f] Sex and the City,[g] The Daily Show,[h] and The West Wing.

[i] Parodies of Popeil's infomercials were done on the comedy show Saturday Night Live by Dan Aykroyd[j] and Eddie Murphy[19] and the "Veg-O-Matic" may have provided comedian Gallagher inspiration for the "Sledge-O-Matic" routine since the 1980s.

[22] In the 2007 film Funny Games, one of the characters is channel surfing and briefly flicks past an infomercial for Ron Popeil's Vegetable Dehydrator.

In Malcolm Gladwell's book What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, Popeil is interviewed and many of his products, most notably the Veg-O-Matic and Showtime Rotisserie, are discussed.