UW alumnus, Baskin-Robbins’ founder dies

Ice cream innovator and UW alumnus Irvine Robbins, co-founder of Baskin-Robbins, has died.

The sweet tooth behind the company was 90 years old when he died due to complications related to old age Monday at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Green Mint Stick, Banana Nut Fudge and his all-time favorite Jamoca Almond Fudge were just a few of the many ice cream flavors dreamed up and created by Robbins.

Robbins was born Dec. 6, 1917 in Winnipeg, Canada to Goldie and Aaron Robbins.

He took his first steps in the dairy business at age 10 while helping his father run a dairy in Tacoma, Wash. He later managed the store that used surplus milk to produce ice cream and cottage cheese.

Robbins attended Tacoma’s Stadium and Seattle’s Garfield high schools.

While attending Stadium High School, Robbins went to great lengths to be elected as yell leader. He obtained the coveted position after he surprised the crowd by jumping off a balcony in the school’s auditorium before leading the crowd in a rousing yell.

“He did outrageous practical jokes and he loved to surprise people,” said Erin Robbins, of Grass Valley, Calif., of her father.

“He was a prankster, I’ll tell you that.”

He attended the University of Washington as a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1939.

In 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a recruiting and induction officer in the army specialized training program. He spent time at bases in Utah and California. By the time of his discharge three years later, he had attained the rank of Sergeant.

That same year, he cashed in a $6,000 insurance policy that his father had given him for his bar mitzvah and used it to open his first ice cream store in Glendale, Calif.

This store, called “Snowbird,” was opened Dec. 7, 1945, the day after Robbins’s 28th birthday. On his first day of business, Robbins made $59, and his cousin Sybil Hartfield bought $39 worth of the day’s sales.

A year later his brother-in-law, Burton Baskin, opened an ice cream store, and the two merged 1948, after running separate businesses. Baskin-Robbins was born.

As the business grew and more stores were established, the two began licensing the operations for separate stores, pioneering franchising in the ice cream industry.

Robbins married Irma Gevurtz in 1942 and they had three children: Marsha Veit, John Robbins and Erin Robbins.

Erin remembers testing ice cream and thinking of new flavors at the dinner table with her family.

“All the kids made up flavors. He was a real fan of brainstorming,” she said.

Robbins once invented an ice cream flavor on the spot, when a reporter from the New York Post called to ask what flavor Robbins was making in honor of the Beatles’ arrival to the United States and their Ed Sullivan Show performance. On the phone, Robbins immediately replied, “Beatlenut.” He promptly phoned the factories and had them start production on a previous unnamed flavor with nuts in it. Days later, marketing for the new flavor hit the stores.

After selling the company in 1967 to United Fruit Company, Robbins retired in 1978.

He and his wife spent time traveling around the world, visiting China, the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Vietnam, South America, Galapagos and Indonesia. He and a group of friends chartered the United Fruit Company banana freighter from New Orleans through the Panama Canal and renamed the ship “Passabanana.” On the trip, the group played bridge and leisurely enjoyed the sights.

Robbins also lectured at UCLA and the University of Southern California. Continuing his jokester spirit, he advised students who were concerned about job benefits to work for the U.S. Post Office, because clearly they weren’t cut out to be entrepreneurs.

Robbins and his wife settled in Rancho Mirage in 1978. There he enjoyed spending time with a community of friends, golfing and walking his Siberian husky named “Tasha.”

When asked earlier in his life what he would have done differently, he answered, “I’d figure out how to get by on less sleep so I could do more of what I did.”