Albert Werthan, 96, the retired chairman and chief executive of Werthan Industries, died Saturday at Vanderbilt Medical Center.

Joining the family bag manufacturing business in the 1920s, Werthan first focused on sales, according to Bill Carey's Fortunes, Fiddles & Fried Chicken. Ultimately, he and brother Bernard ran the company, which reached its zenith making burlap and cotton bags for the war effort in World War II and later added paper bags to its product line.