Egg McMuffin deal celebrates inventor and helps the Neighborhood Clinics

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The late Herb Peterson, who invented the McDonald's Egg McMuffin in Santa Barbara is being remembered as part of a fundraiser organized by his son.

David Peterson, a McDonalds franchise owner, said his dad would be 104 if he were still with us.

"Herb Peterson Day" as he calls it, offers the Egg McMuffin for $2 with funds going to the Neighborhood Clinics.

All McDonald's locations in Santa Barbara and Goleta participated.

The breakfast sandwich was invented in 1972 in Santa Barbara. It was a breakthrough moment for fast food restaurants which had not, until then, offered morning meals. There's a special plaque in local restaurants to commemorate the meal.

Peterson says breakfast meals now make up a large portion of the business at McDonald's.

The first McDonald's corporate-authorized Egg McMuffin was served in New Jersey.

Herb Peterson was well known at his local McDonalds and frequently came in to see the staff and talk to customrs.

He passed away in 2008.