Well-known Amos founder Wally Amos, a high-school dropout turned cookie mogul, dies at 88

Amos created the Well-known Amos cookie empire and ultimately misplaced possession of the corporate — in addition to the rights to make use of the catchy Amos title. In his later years, he grew to become a proprietor of a cookie store referred to as Chip & Cookie in Hawaii, the place he moved in 1977.

He died Tuesday at his house in Honolulu, together with his spouse, Carol, at his aspect, his youngsters mentioned. He died from problems with dementia, they mentioned.

“Together with his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Well-known Amos was an amazing American success story, and a supply of Black delight,” mentioned an announcement from his youngsters, Sarah, Michael, Gregory and Shawn Amos.

He was married six instances to 5 ladies, son Shawn mentioned, explaining that he and Carol had break 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 Power, and Well-known Amos gave him the means to later make it his house.

Sarah Amos, who was born in Hawaii, remembers her dad flying forwards and backwards to the U.S. mainland and taking enterprise calls at 4 a.m.

“It’s exhausting to run a enterprise and to work with folks on the mainland once you’re in Hawaii,” she mentioned. “However he made the sacrifice.”

Whereas Wally Amos was an amazing promotor, he struggled as a businessperson and ultimately misplaced management of the corporate. He walked away from it as a result of he didn’t wish to simply be its face, Sarah Amos mentioned.

Later dropping the enterprise and the fitting 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 had been makes an attempt to get him to, you understand, 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 number 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 offered right now are in contrast to his cookies, which had a lot of chocolate, actual butter and pure vanilla extract.

“You may’t evaluate 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 companion, Lou Avignone.

Inside his now-shuttered Hawaii cookie store, he offered bite-sized cookies much like those he first offered 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 normally spent Saturdays sitting on a rocking chair, carrying 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 faculty.

The previous highschool dropout penned eight books, served as spokesperson for Literacy Volunteers of America for twenty-four years and gave motivational talks to firms, 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 best contribution to your nation shouldn’t be your signature straw hat within the Smithsonian, however the folks you could have impressed to study to learn,” Bush mentioned.

In one among his books, “Man With No Identify: Flip Lemons Into Lemonade,” Amos defined how he misplaced Well-known Amos even earlier than it was offered for $63 million to a Taiwanese firm in 1991. Regardless of strong gross sales, by 1985, the enterprise was dropping cash, so Amos introduced in exterior buyers.

“The brand new house owners devoured 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 instances.

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 easy methods to make chocolate chip cookies.

He later dropped out of highschool to hitch the Air Power earlier than working as a mailroom clerk on the William Morris Company, the place he grew to become 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 turning 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 youngsters, it kind 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.”