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Wallace “Wally” Amos, the creator of the cookie empire that took his title and made it well-known and who went on to turn out to be a youngsters’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 title. 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 at his residence in Honolulu, along with his spouse, Carol, at his aspect, his youngsters mentioned. He died from issues with dementia, they mentioned.
“Along with his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Well-known Amos was an awesome American success story, and a supply of Black satisfaction,” mentioned a press release from his youngsters, Sarah, Michael, Gregory and Shawn Amos.
He was married six occasions to 5 girls, son Shawn mentioned, explaining that he and Carol had cut up up, reacquainted after which remarried.
“He beloved love,” Sarah Amos mentioned.
They mentioned their dad “impressed a era of entrepreneurs when he based the world’s first cookie retailer” on Sundown Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1975.
He had been stationed in Hawaii with the Air Pressure, and Well-known Amos gave him the means to later make it his residence.
Sarah Amos, who was born in Hawaii, remembers her dad flying backwards and forwards to the U.S. mainland and taking enterprise calls at 4 a.m.
“It’s laborious to run a enterprise and to work with individuals on the mainland once you’re in Hawaii,” she mentioned. “However he made the sacrifice.”
Whereas Wally Amos was an awesome promotor, he struggled as a businessperson and finally misplaced management of the corporate. He walked away from it as a result of he didn’t need to simply be its face, Sarah Amos mentioned.
Later shedding the enterprise and the appropriate to make use of his title was deeply painful and private, Shawn Amos mentioned: “The rest of his life and the rest of his skilled pursuits have been makes an attempt to get him to, you recognize, reclaim that area.”
Wally Amos was additionally co-founder of Uncle Wally’s Muffin Co., whose merchandise are present in shops nationwide. However Amos mentioned 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, N.Y., was initially based as Uncle Noname Cookie Co. in 1992, a couple of years after Amos misplaced Well-known Amos, which nonetheless broadly makes use of his title on its merchandise.
Amos had mentioned the Well-known Amos cookies bought at the moment are in contrast to his cookies, which had numerous 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 just like those he first bought on the Well-known Amos Hollywood retailer.
Amos additionally was energetic in selling studying. His store, for instance, had a studying room with dozens of donated books, and Amos often spent Saturdays sitting on a rocking chair, sporting a watermelon hat, studying to youngsters.
Sarah Amos recalled him studying to youngsters at Hanahauʻoli Faculty and persevering with to take action even after she graduated from the small elementary college.
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 honors for his volunteerism, together with the Literacy Award introduced 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 individuals you’ve impressed to study to learn,” Bush mentioned.
In certainly one of his books, “Man With No Identify: Flip Lemons Into Lemonade,” Amos defined how he misplaced Well-known Amos even earlier than it was bought for $63 million to a Taiwanese firm in 1991. Regardless of sturdy gross sales, by 1985, the enterprise was shedding cash, so Amos introduced in outdoors traders.
“The brand new homeowners devoured up extra of my share till rapidly, I discovered I had misplaced all possession within the firm I based,” Amos wrote. Earlier than lengthy, the corporate had modified possession 4 occasions.
Sarah Amos mentioned that after parting methods with Well-known Amos, he stopped baking for about two years. After rediscovering a love of baking, he launched the Hawaii enterprise, Chip & Cookie, in 1991.
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 tips on how to make chocolate chip cookies.
He later dropped out of highschool to affix 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 $25,000 to launch his cookie enterprise.
He was the primary Black agent within the enterprise, Shawn Amos, mentioned.
Shawn and Sarah mentioned that after changing into mother and father themselves, they realized how significant the chocolate chip cookie is to their household.
“The primary time we made cookies with our children, it form of sunk in, that is truly a household factor,” Shawn mentioned. “It’s a present he gave us. It’s a part of our heritage.”
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