Entrepreneurs Who Died in 2010

Glen Bell’s first drive-in served hot dogs and hamburgers. A fan of Mexican food, Bell wanted to sell tacos, but soft-shelled varieties were too messy for takeout. So he developed a recipe for a hard fried shell that could easily be stuffed. After opening two Mexican chains with partners, he opened the first Taco Bell in Downey, California, in 1962. Bell expanded the restaurant to 868 locations nationwide before selling it in 1978 to PepsiCo. (Taco Bell is now owned by Yum Brands.) Later, he opened Bell Gardens, a 115-acre produce farm that provides agricultural education, and became an ardent supporter of the youth development organization 4-H. He passed away on January 16.

H. Edward Roberts got into computing by accident while working with doctors at the University of Miami, where he built electronics for a heart-lung machine. Roberts became fascinated by the idea of building a version of IBM’s supercomputers for the masses. In the mid-1970s, his company, MITS, released the Altair, which has been called the first personal computer. Roberts sold MITS a few years later. He later earned his medical degree and set up a general practice in Cochran, Georgia. During his short time in the computing industry, he hired and mentored two young programmers who went on to launch their own company—Microsoft. He passed away on April 1.

Through his ventures, J. Bruce Llewellyn became a role model for black businessmen. His path to fortune began with a big bet: in 1969, he mortgaged all his assets to purchase a then-struggling New York City grocery chain, Fedco Foods. Llewellyn turned the company into a $100 million business. He expanded his fortune by buying two groups of Northeast television stations. His biggest deal came in 1985, when he, with Bill Cosby, became the first black majority owner of a Coca-Cola bottling plant. Llewellyn also co-founded the philanthropic organization 100 Black Men and later served as a mentor to Magic Johnson. He passed away on April 7.

Nostalgia proved to be good business for Mildred Orton. With her husband, Vrest, she launched a retail catalog offering items such as Vermont cheddar and English teapots. In 1946, the couple opened the Vermont Country Store in 1946 in the tiny town of Weston. Vrest excelled at finding unique, old-fashioned products, while Mildred ensured the company remained in tiptop financial shape. She also promoted whole grains decades before they were regularly touted in health reports. Her book, Cooking with Wholegrains, originally published in 1947, recently came out in a new edition. The store, now run by Mildred’s son Lyman and three of her grandsons, boasts $90 million in annual sales. She passed away on May 6.

In 1942, Edward Uhl, then a young Army lieutenant colonel, was charged with designing a delivery system for a new grenade that could penetrate German tanks. Working with his boss, Colonel Leslie Skinner, Uhl developed a tube that would protect soldiers from being burned by the propellant used to launch the grenade. During World War II, the Army distributed more than 450,000 units of the weapon, which soon became known as the bazooka. Later, Uhl became president of aerospace company Fairchild Industries. Under his leadership, Fairchild began developing missiles and satellites and introduced the Warthog aircraft, used in the Persian Gulf War. He passed away on May 9.

Thanks to John Shepherd-Barron, shoppers have constant access to cash. After missing his bank’s opening hours, he conceived the idea of a money dispenser that operated similarly to a vending machine. As plastic bank cards did not yet exist, Shepherd-Barron, who worked at a printing company, developed chemically coated checks to be used with a four-digit code to verify customers’ identities. Others had devised similar machines, but Shepherd-Barron’s was the first to be installed, in 1967, at a Barclays branch outside of London. Although Shepherd-Barron did not patent his invention and made no money from it, he was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2005. He passed away on May 15.

Former Tuskegee Airman Raymond Haysbert joined Baltimore-based Parks Sausage in 1952. Mentored by the company’s founder, Henry Parks, Haysbert helped bolster the company’s sales, paving the way for it to become the first minority-owned company to go public in 1969. Haysbert led Parks Sausage as CEO from 1980 to 1994. (The company went bankrupt after his retirement.) He also founded a family catering business, Forum Caterers, and served as the chairman of Baltimore’s Urban League. Haysbert’s influence extended to politics: he supported his former boss Parks’ successful bid for city council in 1963 and later advised Maryland congressman and eventual NAACP president Kweisi Mfume. He passed away on May 24.

Over a game of Scrabble, Chris Haney wondered to his friend Scott Abbott whether the two could create a game just as fun. The result of their brainstorming, Trivial Pursuit, recently brought them $80 million when it was sold to Hasbro in 2008. Finding cash to develop the game was initially a challenge. Despite conducting market research at a Montreal toy fair, the duo scared off potential investors who thought they either weren’t serious or were “con artists,” according to the Toronto Globe and Mail. But after Trivial Pursuit, released in 1982, took off, Haney had no problems finding partners for later ventures, including two top-rated Canadian golf courses. He passed away on May 31.

Robert Wussler was already a television legend when he joined Ted Turner to launch CNN and TNT. In two decades at CBS, Wussler won seven Emmys and oversaw coverage of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Apollo 11, and Nixon’s delegation to China. He also invented the pre-game broadcast with “The NFL Today.” In 1976, at age 39, Wussler was named CBS’s president, becoming the youngest ever network head. He left CBS two years later to start Pyramid Enterprises, which produced syndicated programming for international markets. In 1980, Turner tapped Wussler to expand his upstart company. In addition to launching cable networks, Wussler helped organize the Goodwill Games.

Before he climbed the country charts, Jimmy Dean slaughtered hogs on his family’s Texas farm. In 1969, after wrapping up his music career, which included a Grammy win in 1962 for the recording “Big Bad John,” he went back to that business by founding the Jimmy Dean Meat Company. Dean became famous to a whole new generation as pitchman for the company’s breakfast sausage. He sold the company to Sara Lee in 1984 but continued to serve as its spokesman until 2003. Later, Dean resided with his wife in Varina, Virginia; his anthem to the state was at one time considered for adoption as its official song. He passed away on June 13.

Oddly enough, Nicolas Hayek found a golden opportunity by being asked to destroy it. In 1982, a group of Swiss banks asked his consulting firm, Hayek Engineering, to develop a plan to shut down the country’s floundering watch industry. Instead, Hayek led a merger of watchmakers Asuag and SSIH and set about reaching the mass market. In 1983, the new company, then called SMH, introduced the Swatch, a plastic, quartz-movement watch that sold for under $35. Released in colorful limited editions, Swatches became collectibles. Hayek often wore several on one arm, alongside his high-end timepieces, whose sales also rose. Today, the Swatch Group has $4.9 billion in annual sales. He passed away on June 28.

Sam Ross already had two business stints—running a deli and managing real estate—under his belt when he moved to Memphis to attend barber school. Soon after landing a job at a local barbershop, he bought the place. That location became the first of some 1,300 Fantastic Sams currently nationwide. Ross’s shops stood apart not only for their unisex offerings but also Ross’s intense commitment to training salon employees, even those with years of previous experience, so that no location wavered in quality. Although Ross could be aggressive in urging franchisees to expand, his dedication—he often lent them initial start-up fees—won him immense loyalty. He passed away on July 19.

After serving in World War II, Theo and Karl Albrecht found that their mother’s shop in Schonnebeck, Germany, was one of the suburb’s few surviving businesses. The brothers opened 100 more locations within a decade by limiting inventory, adopting a self-service format, and offering deep discounts. Over a disagreement on selling cigarettes (Theo supported it), the brothers split the chain, Aldi, into two divisions in 1961. Although Theo was barred from opening Aldi stores in the U.S., he entered the market by buying Trader Joe’s in 1979. Famously reclusive, he was reportedly frugal, even refusing to buy fountain pens in favor of short pencil nubs, despite his billions in wealth. He passed away on July 24.

Wharton graduate Morrie Yohai joined his family’s business after serving in the Marines. The purveyor of ice cream, popcorn, cheese crackers, and Melba toast sought another snack to sell. One day, Yohai and his partners observed a machine producing tubes of cornmeal, and they decided to flavor the pieces with cheese. Yohai christened the snacks Cheez Doodles. They became a hit upon their debut in the mid-1950s, and Borden bought Yohai’s company, Old London Foods, in 1964. Yohai briefly stayed at Borden, where among other duties, he chose prizes for Cracker Jack boxes. Later, he co-founded the NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival and joined New York Institute of Technology’s management school. He passed away on July 27.

Few would have imagined that a sleepy orange grove in Anaheim, California, could be billed “the happiest place on earth.” But that’s where Harrison “Buzz” Price, then at the Stanford Research Institute, recommended that Walt Disney build his first theme park. After the breakthrough of Disneyland, Price launched Economic Research Associates, which selected Orlando as the location of Disney World. He later started another research firm, the Harrison Price Company; in all, he worked on some 3,000 projects for parks, fairs, museums, and zoos. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner credited Price with being “as much responsible for the success of the Walt Disney Company as anybody except Walt Disney himself.” He passed away on August 15.

John Kluge made his first millions on a Fritos franchise. He invested those earnings into Metropolitan Broadcasting, which then comprised two television stations and two radio stations. Kluge grew the business, renamed Metromedia, into the largest independent television company in the U.S. and eventually acquired other businesses, including the Ice Capades and the Harlem Globetrotters. Kluge then moved to purchase the syndication rights to “MASH,” which helped Metromedia’s stations rival network affiliates in ratings. In 1986, Kluge sold the stations for nearly $2 billion to Rupert Murdoch, who then launched Fox. Kluge later donated over $163 million to Columbia, his alma mater, and the University of Virginia. He passed away on September 7.

In his Army days, James Winner would secure his jeep’s steering wheel with a chain to deter theft. So when his Cadillac was stolen, he developed a steering wheel lock. In 1986, he formed Winner International to market the device, which he named the Club. By 1993, Winner had sold more than 10 million of them. The Club was later proven vulnerable to attack, and Winner had to settle a lawsuit from a mechanic who helped develop the device and sought a share of the proceeds. But Winner was able to develop other security products. A prominent booster of his hometown, Sharon, Pennsylvania, he later opened other businesses, including two inns and a diner. He passed away on September 14.

Jack Goeken originally founded Microwave Communications, later MCI, to supply radios to truckers traveling long routes. But MCI’s breakthrough came in its competitively priced long-distance service, which transformed the telephone business. So did Goeken’s suit against AT&T, which led to the company’s breakup in 1984. By then, though, Goeken had left MCI over a disagreement on whether to focus on business or consumer services. He went on to establish FTD Mercury, the network used by florists to wire orders, and the in-flight phone company Airfone. His later investments included PolyBrite International, which makes energy-efficient LED lighting systems. He passed away on September 16.

Jimi Heselden worked as a coal miner until he lost his job after the British miners’ strike of 1984. He used his layoff compensation to start a sandblasting company, but his attention turned to engineering a product for structural protection. He developed the bastion, a mesh container that could be filled more easily than sandbags. The U.S. military now regularly uses bastions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Heselden’s company, Hesco Bastions, brought him some $260 million, much of which he donated to charity. In 2009, he bought the electric-scooter company Segway. Ironically, he died in an accident while testing the vehicle on September 26.

When Abe Gustin sought to add more Taco Bell locations under his franchising company, he was told there was no room for growth in other markets. But he felt a fledgling casual-dining franchiser called Applebee’s seemed poised for growth. Gustin joined the company’s board and became a franchisee. After opening six locations, in 1988, he and Applebee’s president John Hamra bought the chain, which at the time had 54 locations, from its conglomerate owner. As the CEO and later chairman of Applebee’s International, Gustin grew the restaurant to more than 1,000 locations before retiring from day-to-day management of the company in 1998. He passed away on October 7.

At age 19, John Nosler developed a new crankshaft for Ford’s assembly lines. A decade later, he tinkered on another invention when, on a Canada hunting trip, his shot failed to fell a moose. Nosler developed the Partition, a two-sectioned bullet that would expand in an animal’s flesh while maintaining its force. Introduced in 1948, it soon became standard among hunters. The big-game hunter Herb Klein called it the “world’s deadliest bullet.” The Partition remains a bestseller for Nosler’s eponymous company, now run by his son Bob. Nosler, who retired in 1988, remained a superb shot into his nineties, as he demonstrated while dedicating a shooting range in 2005. He passed away on October 10.

After Ronald Reagan took office, Carla Cohen, a Carter appointee in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was out of a job. So she channeled her energy into her passion for books and intellectual discourse. Independent bookstores were already in danger by the time Cohen opened Politics and Prose. But Cohen’s knack for fostering community—Politics and Prose was the first East Coast bookstore to open a coffee shop—and vast bibliographic knowledge attracted a fiercely loyal following. The bookstore became an obligatory stop for writers’ speaking tours; John Updike, Alice Walker, and Bill Clinton all made appearances. She passed away on October 11.

Bob Guccione released Penthouse in London in 1965 to immense scandal—not only for its content but also for unwittingly mailing brochures to clergymen and Parliament wives. By daring to be more provocative than Playboy, Guccione built his business, General Media, into a $300 million empire with 15 titles. (Anna Wintour once worked as an editor at Viva, one short-lived publication.) In 1984, Penthouse infamously published nude photos of Vanessa Williams, who was forced to give up her Miss America crown. Guccione lived lavishly in a Manhattan town house and collected works by Degas, Picasso, and Dali. But as porn proliferated, his company suffered. It went bankrupt in 2003. He passed away on October 20.

Bargain hunters owe a debt of gratitude to Stanley Tanger, who popularized the outlet mall. While running the family business, Creighton Shirtmakers, he thought of clustering the company’s standalone outlet shops with those of other manufacturers. Tanger opened his first outlet center in Burlington, North Carolina, in 1981. By 1992, the Greensboro-based company had 13 outlets, and the next year, it went public. His company, now led by his son Steven, earned $270 million in sales last year. Tanger, whose wife survived breast cancer, was also a strong supporter of efforts to raise awareness of the disease, donating some $8.5 million to the cause. Tanger passed away on October 23.

Working with artists such as Oscar D’Leon, Jose Luis Rodriguez, and Tito Rojas, Tony Moreno helped cultivate the Latin music boom. Born in Cuba, he fled to Miami with his family at age 11 after his pro-revolution uncle was killed. He got started in the music business by sweeping floors at Velvet Records outside of Miami, and soon moved up to executive positions at top Latin labels TH and Sonotone. By the time Moreno launched Musical Productions, known as MP, in 1989, his reputation was well established in the industry. His son, Jorge, followed him in the business, winning a Latin Grammy for Best New Artist in 2002. Moreno passed away on November 14.

Begun in a Trenton, New Jersey, basement, Helen Boehm’s company sold porcelain sculptures to the likes of Sophia Loren and Queen Elizabeth II. When Boehm’s husband, Edward, a veterinary assistant, began sculpting clay animals as a hobby, she encouraged him to sculpt full-time. A natural pitchwoman—as an optician, she had persuaded Clark Gable that sunglasses were essential for his line of work—Boehm took over sales and marketing. She landed a meeting with First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, and since then, Boehm pieces have been given to every U.S. president and have become common gifts for foreign dignitaries. That success earned her the title “Princess of Porcelain.” She passed away on November 15.

Under Howard Lester’s watch, Williams-Sonoma grew from a small, indebted cookware supplier to a $3.4 billion kitchen retail giant. A serial entrepreneur, Lester had sold off his software company, Centurex, when a friend tipped him off to Williams-Sonoma’s being up for sale. Lester bought the company and turned it around by instituting tracking systems for inventory and customer preferences. During the company’s rapid growth in the 1980s, he was said to be able to recite each retail location’s manager and revenue. Lester later founded an entrepreneurship and innovation center at UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He passed away on November 15.

Al Masini got his start in television in the 1950s as a film editor at CBS. While working as a spot sales rep, he developed a system for selling ads based on audience size, the metric still used today. In 1968, Masini founded TeleRep, a firm that represents local TV stations in selling national ads. Masini sought to offer his clients lucrative programming, and so he began developing specials, such as “A Woman Called Golda,” starring Ingrid Bergman. He went on to create the shows “Star Search,” “Entertainment Tonight,” and “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” After moving to Hawaii in 1994, Masini was instrumental in bringing film and television productions to the state, including Baywatch Hawaii. He passed away on November 29.

The food at Elaine’s in New York City may not have been a top draw, but the restaurant’s owner, Elaine Kaufman, certainly was. Established in 1962 on the Upper East Side, Elaine’s quickly became a hangout for writers such as Norman Mailer and Gay Talese. It soon drew the Hollywood set: Woody Allen opened his film “Manhattan” with a scene set in the restaurant. While Kaufman was often accused of snubbing patrons who weren’t on the A-list, she earned regular patrons’ admiration by routinely working the front of the house. In 2003, the New York Landmarks Conservancy honored her as a “living landmark.” She passed away on December 3.