Ira “Bob” Born, a sweet firm govt often known as the “Father of Peeps” for mechanizing the method to make marshmallow chicks, has died. He was 98.
Simply Born High quality Confections, the 100-year-old family-owned firm Born led for a lot of his life, mentioned Monday that he had died peacefully on Sunday.
Born started his life in New York Metropolis on Sept. 29, 1924. His father, Sam Born, was a Russian immigrant who began Simply Born shortly earlier than his son’s start. The household later moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the place Simply Born continues to be based mostly.
Bob Born graduated from Lehigh College with a level in engineering physics. He enlisted within the U.S. Navy and served as a radar specialist and a lieutenant on a destroyer within the Pacific. Later, the Navy despatched him to the College of Arizona and the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how for graduate work in math and physics.
Born utilized to medical college and was accepted, however whereas he was ready for his courses to start, he went to work at Simply Born. He fell in love with the sweet enterprise and determined to remain.
“The sweet enterprise was sort of catchy … it was fascinating to him,” Ross Born, Bob Born’s son, advised the Lehigh Valley News. “He loved the science, the expertise, the processing. He was very a lot into the tools.”
In 1953, Simply Born acquired Rodda Sweet Co., a jelly bean maker that had a aspect enterprise producing formed marshmallow candies by hand. On the time, it took about 27 hours to make the marshmallows.
Bob Born noticed the candies’ potential, so he and an engineer on the firm designed and constructed a machine to make them in lower than six minutes. The corporate’s present machines, that are nonetheless based mostly on Bob Born’s design, now pump out 5.5 million Peeps per day.
Seventy years later, Peeps stay Simply Born’s most recognizable sweet model, the corporate says. Simply Born makes round 2 billion Peeps every year, or sufficient to circle the globe two-and-a-half instances. It sells essentially the most at Easter, but additionally has variations bought for Halloween, Valentine’s Day and different holidays.
Bob Born additionally got here up with the recipe for an additional fashionable Simply Born sweet, Scorching Tamales. Simply Born additionally makes Mike and Ike fruit chews and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews.
Bob Born grew to become Simply Born’s president in 1959 and held the function for greater than 30 years. He final visited the Simply Born manufacturing facility on Feb. 15, 2019, when town of Bethlehem proclaimed the primary day of the Easter season as “Bob Born Day.”
He spent most of his retirement in Florida, the place he led a literacy program and loved hobbies together with pictures. He was lively till just a few months earlier than he died, when he had a troublesome restoration after a tough fall.
“Bob might be remembered as a tireless and passionate advocate for the sweet trade and an exquisite supporter of our neighborhood,” mentioned David Shaffer, co-CEO and chairman of Simply Born, in an announcement launched by the corporate.
He’s survived by his widow, Patricia; youngsters Sara and Ross; 5 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. His funeral might be non-public.
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