The businessman credited with franchising McDonald’s across the United States is Ray Kroc.
Kroc was a Prince Castle milkshake-mixer salesman when he visited the McDonald brothers’ highly efficient restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1954. Impressed by its speed and streamlined menu, he became their franchise agent and received rights to develop McDonald’s restaurants across much of the country.
Kroc opened the first McDonald’s operated under his organization in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955. He emphasized single-store franchises, standardized procedures and consistent food quality rather than granting large territories to individual operators. Those controls helped turn a successful regional concept into a national chain.
The McDonald brothers, Richard and Maurice, did create the original restaurant and had begun franchising before Kroc’s involvement. That is why the question asks who is “credited with franchising” McDonald’s across the United States rather than who invented the restaurant. Kroc later bought the brothers’ interest in 1961 and drove the company’s broader expansion.