Up for auction "Ben & Jerry's" Ben Cohen Hand Signed Popcorn Bag.
ES-6895E
Bennett
Cohen (born March 18,
1951) is an American businessman, activist, and philanthropist. He is a
co-founder of the ice cream company Ben &
Jerry's.
Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in the town
of Merrick, New York,
on Long Island by Jewish parents Frances and Irving. He spent at least one
summer at Buck's Rock Performing
and Creative Arts Camp in New Milford, Connecticut Cohen
first met and befriended his future business partner Jerry Greenfield in a seventh grade gym class in 1963. They
continued on to Sanford H. Calhoun High
School. In his senior year, Cohen found work as an ice cream
man before leaving to attend Colgate
University in Hamilton, New York. Over
the next decade, Cohen pursued his interest in pottery and dropped out of
college after his sophomore year. He also worked as a McDonald's cashier, Pinkerton guard,
deliverer of pottery wheels, mop-boy
at Jamesway and Friendly's, assistant superintendent, ER clerk, and taxi driver, before settling on work as a craft teacher at a
private school for emotionally-disturbed adolescents. While teaching at the
Highland Community School, Cohen began experimenting with making his own ice
cream. In 1977, Cohen decided to go into business with his old friend Jerry Greenfield, and in May of the next year, the two men
opened Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream Parlor in Burlington, Vermont. They
initially intended to start a bagel business, but found the equipment costs
prohibitive and switched to ice cream instead. They chose Burlington as a
location because it was a prominent college town which, at the time, had no ice cream shop.
Ben & Jerry's distinctive style of ice cream was developed to compensate
for Cohen's anosmia, as he kept adding larger and larger chunks to the ice
cream to satisfy his need for texture in food. Ben & Jerry's became popular
in Burlington. Their main competition was two other ice cream companies,
Dreyers and Haagen Daaz. Cohen resigned as Chief Executive Officer of Ben &
Jerry's in 1996.