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Everyone wants to know what’s Frank Epperson net worth at death 2023, the man behind the invention of the popsicle.
Consider this the next time you pop a Popsicle into your mouth: You’re savoring the product of an 11-year-old business owner’s hard work.
American inventor Frank Epperson is well recognized for creating the Popsicle. In California, USA, he was born in 1894. He was married to Mary and had five kids.
Epperson worked for a nearby gas and electric business. Epperson persisted in his inventiveness, coming up with several cold confections. He started other food-related businesses and was a successful businessman.
Before getting to know about Frank Epperson net worth, let’s know about the back story of the first popsicle.
The popsicle story
The summertime treat was inadvertently created in 1905 by Frank Epperson, a young man from the San Francisco Bay Area.
He had combined some water and sugar-coated soda powder and let it sit outside all night. The combination froze because it was a cold night.
Epperson licked the cold mixture from the wooden stirrer in the morning. He started distributing the dessert throughout his area and called it an Epsicle, a combination of his name and icicle.
In 1923, he decided to increase sales outside of his community and began vending the confection at the neighboring entertainment park, Neptune Beach.
The park, which was called a “West Coast Coney Island,” had an Olympic-sized swimming pool, baseball fields, and roller coasters.
During Neptune’s pre-Depression heyday, sales of snow cones and popsicles which also made their début at Neptune were brisk.
The sad ending of a happy creation
The inventor’s origin tale is endearing if a little fictitious, but it ended badly for him.
“I was flat and had to liquidate all my assets,” a regretful Epperson later remarked, having sold the rights to his design to the Joe Lowe Co. in the 1920s while he was broke. “I haven’t been the same since.”
Epperson’s innovation was later launched to national success by The Lowe Co. To stretch customers’ dollars during the Great Depression, the business introduced the Popsicle in two sticks, which sold for five cents each.
However, Good Humor, which had just introduced its chocolate-covered ice cream on a stick, threatened to outdo this delectable pair, and Lowe was sued for copyright infringement.
The compromise of the court? Good Humor might sell ice cream pops, and Popsicle could sell sweets made of water.
Popsicle pushed the boundaries of the contract by marketing a “Milk Popsicle,” and the two businesses engaged in a legal battle over the years on the precise meanings of ice cream and sherbet.
Addition of a new food corporation
In 1989, the enormous food company Unilever acquired the Popsicle brand, allowing it to grow beyond its initial fruity varieties.
It ended the rivalry between the two cold competitors when it also purchased Good Humor.
Epperson’s childhood innovation has become famous over time, replacing any frozen dessert in the same manner that Kleenex represents a tissue.
This explains why Unilever has made an effort throughout the years to maintain Popsicle’s name unique: The corporation threatened to sue People’s Pops, artisan ice pop manufacturers in Brooklyn, in 2010 for using the word “popsicle” on their site.
Death of Frank Epperson
In terms of Epperson, he passed away in 1983 and is interred in Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery.
His tale continues in a variety of formats, including an uplifting Christian self-help book about believing in God’s big plan for your life and the official Popsicle website, where it is depicted in comic book style.
An unexpected chilly night inspired Epperson to create his boyhood invention, which has since proven to be incredibly popular and long-lasting—approximately 2 billion Popsicles are sold annually.
Frank Epperson net worth at death
In 1983, Frank Epperson passed away. His estimated net worth at the time of his passing was $20 million. Epperson submitted an innovation patent application in 1923.
Afterward, in 1924, he founded the Popsicle Corporation and started manufacturing the treat in bulk. The Popsicle quickly gained popularity in America and is still well-liked today.