{"id":3736,"date":"2015-07-06T08:51:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T16:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/burt-shavitz-namesake-and-co-founder-of-burts-bees-dies\/3736\/"},"modified":"2015-07-06T08:51:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T16:51:00","slug":"burt-shavitz-namesake-and-co-founder-of-burts-bees-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/burt-shavitz-namesake-and-co-founder-of-burts-bees-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Burt Shavitz, Namesake And Co-Founder Of Burt's Bees, Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lucy Perkins<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\"Burt<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Burt Shavitz, who co-founded Burt’s Bees, died Sunday in Bangor, Maine. Robert F. Bukaty\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

i<\/strong>toggle caption Robert F. Bukaty\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Burt Shavitz, the man whose face is on your minty Burt’s Bees chapstick and body wash, died on Sunday in Bangor, Maine. He was 80.<\/p>\n

NPR’s Elizabeth Blair reports that Shavitz’s death was as a result of respiratory complications.<\/p>\n

“We remember him as a wild-bearded and free-spirited Maine man, a beekeeper, a wisecracker, a lover of golden retrievers, a reverent observer of nature, and the kind of face that smiles back at us from our Hand Salve,” the company says<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n

Burt’s Bees says that before Shavitz became a beekeeper in Maine, he was a photojournalist freelancing in New York City, documenting key figures in the civil rights movement, beat poets and artists in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

When TV became popular, Shavitz realized that there wasn’t a big market for his photos anymore, The Daily Beast<\/em> wrote in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It adds that:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

“In 1970, Burt threw his mattress in his Volkswagen van and, along with a few buddies, drove upstate to the High Falls, New York, area. After a series of heavy rainstorms, Burt decided to drive around and survey the damage. He stumbled upon a swarm of bees on a fencepost.<\/p>\n

” ‘The year before, a guy that I’d been buying honey from, who was a beekeeper, had given me everything I needed to be a beekeeper except the bees \u2014 a hive, a mask, gloves, a smoker, a hive tool, everything,’ Burt recalls. ‘So, there was this fencepost, and I said, “My lord, this is an act of God! I can’t turn this down.” ‘ “<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Burt’s Bees began in 1984 when Shavitz met an artist named Roxanne Quimby. According to the company’s web site<\/a>, Quimby “was thumbing a ride home (back when you could still do that sort of thing). Eventually a bright yellow Datsun pickup truck pulled over, and Roxanne instantly recognized Burt Shavitz, a local fella whose beard was almost as well-known as his roadside honey stand. Burt and Roxanne hit it off, and before long, Roxanne was making candles with unused wax from Burt’s beehives. They made $200 at their first craft fair; within a year, they’d make $20,000.”<\/p>\n

The company grew and moved its headquarters to Durham, N.C., in 1993. But Shavitz’s partnership with Quimby unraveled in the late 90s. The Daily Beast,<\/em> citing Shavitz and a documentary titled Burt’s Buzz,<\/em> says the two reached a settlement after Quimby found out Burt had an affair with a college-age girl who worked at one of the Burt’s Bees stores.<\/p>\n

Quimby eventually bought out Shavitz. Burt’s Bees is now owned by the Clorox Company.<\/p>\n

Here’s the trailer for Burt’s Buzz<\/em><\/a>. It’s a small window onto the life of the unorthodox man who, as Elizabeth reports, “co-founded a skincare company that began with beeswax.”<\/p>\n

[embedded content]<\/p>\n

Burt’s Buzz<\/a> from FilmBuff<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source:: http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/07\/06\/420554486\/burt-shavitz-namesake-and-co-founder-of-burts-bees-dies?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=business<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Burt<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Burt Shavitz, who co-founded Burt’s Bees, died Sunday in Bangor, Maine. Robert F. Bukaty\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

i<\/strong>toggle caption Robert F. Bukaty\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Burt Shavitz, the man whose face is on your minty Burt’s Bees chapstick and body wash, died on Sunday in Bangor, Maine. He was 80.<\/p>\n

NPR’s Elizabeth Blair reports that Shavitz’s death was as a result of respiratory complications.<\/p>\n

“We remember him as a wild-bearded and free-spirited Maine man, a beekeeper, a wisecracker, a lover of golden retrievers, a reverent observer of nature, and the kind of face that smiles back at us from our Hand Salve,” the company says<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n

Burt’s Bees says that before Shavitz became a beekeeper in Maine, he was a photojournalist freelancing in New York City, documenting key figures in the civil rights movement, beat poets and artists in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

When TV became popular, Shavitz realized that there wasn’t a big market for his photos anymore, The Daily Beast<\/em> wrote in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It adds that:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

“In 1970, Burt threw his mattress in his Volkswagen van and, along with a few buddies, drove upstate to the High Falls, New York, area. After a series of heavy rainstorms, Burt decided to drive around and survey the damage. He stumbled upon a swarm of bees on a fencepost.<\/p>\n

” ‘The year before, a guy that I’d been buying honey from, who was a beekeeper, had given me everything I needed to be a beekeeper except the bees \u2014 a hive, a mask, gloves, a smoker, a hive tool, everything,’ Burt recalls. ‘So, there was this fencepost, and I said, “My lord, this is an act of God! I can’t turn this down.” ‘ “<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Burt’s Bees began in 1984 when Shavitz met an artist named Roxanne Quimby. According to the company’s web site<\/a>, Quimby “was thumbing a ride home (back when you could still do that sort of thing). Eventually a bright yellow Datsun pickup truck pulled over, and Roxanne instantly recognized Burt Shavitz, a local fella whose beard was almost as well-known as his roadside honey stand. Burt and Roxanne hit it off, and before long, Roxanne was making candles with unused wax from Burt’s beehives. They made $200 at their first craft fair; within a year, they’d make $20,000.”<\/p>\n

The company grew and moved its headquarters to Durham, N.C., in 1993. But Shavitz’s partnership with Quimby unraveled in the late 90s. The Daily Beast,<\/em> citing Shavitz and a documentary titled Burt’s Buzz,<\/em> says the two reached a settlement after Quimby found out Burt had an affair with a college-age girl who worked at one of the Burt’s Bees stores.<\/p>\n

Quimby eventually bought out Shavitz. Burt’s Bees is now owned by the Clorox Company.<\/p>\n

Here’s the trailer for Burt’s Buzz<\/em><\/a>. It’s a small window onto the life of the unorthodox man who, as Elizabeth reports, “co-founded a skincare company that began with beeswax.”<\/p>\n

[embedded content]<\/p>\n

Burt’s Buzz<\/a> from FilmBuff<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}