Wallace “Wally” Amos, the creator of the cookie empire that took his identify and made it well-known and who went on to turn into a kids’s literacy advocate, has died. He was 88.
Amos created the Well-known Amos cookie empire and finally misplaced possession of the corporate – in addition to the rights to make use of the catchy Amos identify. In his later years, he turned a proprietor of a cookie store referred to as Chip & Cookie in Hawaii, the place he moved in 1977.
He died Tuesday (Aug 14) at his residence in Honolulu, along with his spouse, Carol, at his aspect, his kids stated. He died from issues with dementia, they stated.
“Together with his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Well-known Amos was an excellent American success story, and a supply of Black satisfaction,” stated a press release from his kids, Sarah, Michael, Gregory and Shawn Amos.
They stated their dad “impressed a era of entrepreneurs when he based the world’s first cookie retailer” on Sundown Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1975.
Wally Amos was additionally co-founder of Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co, whose merchandise are present in shops nationwide. However Amos stated the celebrity by no means actually mattered a lot to him.
“Being well-known is very overrated anyway,” Amos instructed The Related Press in 2007.
His muffin firm, based mostly in Shirley, New York, was initially based as Uncle Noname Cookie Co in 1992, a couple of years after Amos misplaced Well-known Amos, which nonetheless extensively makes use of his identify on its merchandise.
Amos had stated the Well-known Amos cookies bought at this time are not like his cookies, which had plenty of chocolate, actual butter and pure vanilla extract.
“You possibly can’t examine a machine-made cookie with handmade cookie,” he instructed the AP. “It’s like evaluating a Rolls Royce with a Volkswagen.”
Uncle Noname, nevertheless, foundered due to debt and issues with its contracted producers.
The corporate filed for chapter in 1996, deserted cookies and went into muffins on the suggestion of Amos’ enterprise accomplice, Lou Avignone.
Inside his now-shuttered Hawaii cookie store, he bought bite-sized cookies much like those he first bought on the Well-known Amos Hollywood retailer.
Amos additionally was lively in selling studying. His store, for instance, had a studying room with dozens of donated books, and Amos normally spent Saturdays sitting on a rocking chair, carrying a watermelon hat, studying to kids.
The previous highschool dropout penned eight books, served as spokesperson for Literacy Volunteers of America for twenty-four years and gave motivational talks to companies, universities and different teams.
Amos earned quite a few honours for his volunteerism, together with the Literacy Award offered by President George H.W. Bush in 1991.
“Your biggest contribution to your nation just isn’t your signature straw hat within the Smithsonian, however the folks you will have impressed to study to learn,” Bush stated.
In one in all his books, Man With No Title: Flip Lemons Into Lemonade, Amos defined how he misplaced Well-known Amos even earlier than it was bought for US$63 million to a Taiwanese firm in 1991. Regardless of sturdy gross sales, by 1985, the enterprise was shedding cash, so Amos introduced in exterior traders.
“The brand new house owners wolfed up extra of my share till abruptly, I discovered I had misplaced all possession within the firm I based,” Amos wrote. Earlier than lengthy, the corporate had modified possession 4 occasions.
Born in Tallahassee, Florida, Amos moved to New York Metropolis at age 12 due to his mother and father’ divorce. He lived with an aunt, Della Bryant, who taught him find out how to make chocolate chip cookies.
He later dropped out of highschool to hitch the Air Pressure earlier than working as a mailroom clerk on the William Morris Company, the place he turned a expertise agent, working with The Supremes, Simon & Garfunkel and Marvin Gaye earlier than borrowing US$25,000 to launch his cookie enterprise.
He was the primary Black agent within the enterprise, his son, Shawn Amos, stated.
“Our dad taught us the worth of onerous work, believing in ourselves, and chasing our goals,” his kids’s assertion stated. “We additionally know he would adore it should you had a chocolate chip cookie at this time.”
