Wally Amos, 88, of cookie fame, died at home in Hawaii. He lost Famous Amos but found other success

HONOLULU (AP) — Wallace “Wally” Amos, the creator of the cookie empire that took his identify and made it well-known and who went on to develop into a kids’s literacy advocate, has died. He was 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 identify. 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 residence in Honolulu, together with his spouse, Carol, at his aspect, his kids stated. He died from problems with dementia, they stated.

“Along with his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Well-known Amos was an excellent American success story, and a supply of Black delight,” stated a press release from his kids, Sarah, Michael, Gregory and Shawn Amos.

He was married six occasions to 5 girls, son Shawn stated, explaining that he and Carol had break up up, reacquainted after which remarried.

“He beloved love,” Sarah Amos stated.

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.

He had been stationed in Hawaii with the Air Drive, 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 onerous to run a enterprise and to work with folks on the mainland whenever you’re in Hawaii,” she stated. “However he made the sacrifice.”

Whereas Wally Amos was an excellent 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 stated.

Later shedding the enterprise and the proper to make use of his identify was deeply painful and private, Shawn Amos stated: “The rest of his life and the rest of his skilled pursuits had been makes an attempt to get him to, , reclaim that house.”

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 extremely 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 identify on its merchandise.

Amos had stated the Well-known Amos cookies bought at present are not like his cookies, which had plenty of chocolate, actual butter and pure vanilla extract.

“You possibly can’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, nonetheless, 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 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 often spent Saturdays sitting on a rocking chair, sporting a watermelon hat, studying to kids.

Sarah Amos recalled him studying to kids 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 offered by President George H.W. Bush in 1991.

“Your best contribution to your nation isn’t your signature straw hat within the Smithsonian, however the folks you’ve impressed to be taught to learn,” Bush stated.

In one in every of 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 $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 homeowners wolfed up extra of my share till swiftly, 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 stated 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 affix the Air Drive 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, stated.

Shawn and Sarah stated 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 children, it form of sunk in, that is truly a household factor,” Shawn stated. “It’s a present he gave us. It’s a part of our heritage.”