William Procter

popular name: Irv Robbins

date_of_death: May 5, 2008

age: 90

cause_of_death: Complications due to old age

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Irvine Robbins was a Canadian-born American businessman. He co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1945 with his partner and brother-in-law Burt Baskin. Robbins grew up scooping ice cream at his family’s dairy. In 1945, he opened his first cone shop, Snowbird Ice Cream in Glendale, Calif., offering 21 flavors (when other cone shops only served vanilla, chocolate and strawberry). The following year, his brother-in-law Burton Baskin also opened a shop, Burton’s Ice Cream, in Pasadena. Within three years, Robbins had five Snowbird locations and Baskin had three Burton’s branches. Robbins’ father reportedly advised the two against running a business together because their individual creativity might be stifled. But the in-laws decided to combine their operations. In 1949, they purchased a dairy in Burbank, Calif., which gave them control over production. The two went on to franchise new stores, which helped them grow rapidly. In 1953, they renamed the company Baskin-Robbins, focusing on 31 flavors — one for each day of the month. By 1967, when the chain consisted of about 500 units, the partners sold the company for an estimated $12 million. Six months later, Burt Baskin died of a heart attack at age 54.

popular name: David Sarnoff

date_of_death: December 12, 1971

age: 80

cause_of_death: Mastoid infection

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his retirement in 1970. It all began in 1920 when Sarnoff reiterated his “radio music box” memo and was given a small amount of money to develop a radio prototype. As RCA’s new general manager, he demonstrated radio’s market potential by broadcasting the boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier (July 2, 1921); the broadcast created a sensation. Within three years RCA sold more than $80 million worth of receiving sets. In 1926 RCA formed the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). As early as 1923, Sarnoff had perceived the potential of television, which the contributions of several inventors were making technically feasible. His meeting in 1929 with Westinghouse engineer Vladimir Zworykin convinced him that home television was possible, and Sarnoff persuaded Westinghouse to back Zworykin’s work. In 1930 Westinghouse’s television research and Zworykin were transferred to RCA. By 1939 Sarnoff was able to give a successful demonstration of the new medium at the New York World’s Fair. And as they say ... the rest is history. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

popular name: Franklin Clarence Mars

date_of_death: April 8, 1934

age: 50

cause_of_death: Heart and Kidney issues

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Franklin Clarence Mars was an American entrepreneur and the visionary founder of Mars, Inc., multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products. As a child recovering from polio, he learned to hand-dip chocolate with his mother—a skill that ignited his lifelong passion for candy-making. At 19, he began selling molasses chips, which set him on a path to confectionery innovation. In 1911, alongside his second wife Ethel Veronica Healy, Mars established the Mars Candy Factory in Tacoma, Washington, though early competition forced its relocation. By 1920, the company moved to Minneapolis under the name Mar‑O‑Bar Co., later incorporating as Mars, Inc.. Mars’s breakthrough came in 1923 with the Milky Way bar—conceived from a suggestion by his son Forrest—a chocolate, caramel, and nougat confection that propelled his company to national success. He followed this triumph with the introduction of the Snickers bar in 1930, named after the family’s favorite horse. Mars later settled in Chicago (River Forest, Illinois), where he became an honorary captain of the Oak Park police. Beyond candy, he invested in his passion for horse breeding and ranching, establishing the sprawling Milky Way Farm in Tennessee—complete with barns, clubhouse, and racetrack. He remained actively involved in both his business and agricultural pursuits until his death at age 50 from heart and kidney issues at Johns Hopkins Hospital.