This photograph offered by Just Born exhibits Ira “Bob” Born. Born, a sweet firm government often called the “Father of Peeps” for mechanizing the method to make the marshmallow chicks, died Sunday. He was 98.

Just Born through AP

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Just Born through AP

This photograph offered by Just Born exhibits Ira “Bob” Born. Born, a sweet firm government often called the “Father of Peeps” for mechanizing the method to make the marshmallow chicks, died Sunday. He was 98.

Just Born through AP

Ira “Bob” Born, a sweet firm government often called the “Father of Peeps” for mechanizing the method to make marshmallow chicks, has died. He was 98.

Just Born Quality Confections, the 100-year-old family-owned firm Born led for a lot of his life, mentioned Monday that he had died peacefully on Sunday.

Born started his life in New York City on Sept. 29, 1924. His father, Sam Born, was a Russian immigrant who began Just Born shortly earlier than his son’s start. The household later moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the place Just Born remains to be based mostly.

Bob Born graduated from Lehigh University with a level in engineering physics. He enlisted within the U.S. Navy and served as a radar specialist and a lieutenant on a destroyer within the Pacific. Later, the Navy despatched him to the University of Arizona and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate work in math and physics.

Born utilized to medical faculty and was accepted, however whereas he was ready for his lessons to start, he went to work at Just Born. He fell in love with the sweet enterprise and determined to remain.

“The candy business was kind of catchy … it was interesting to him,” Ross Born, Bob Born’s son, advised the Lehigh Valley News. “He enjoyed the science, the technology, the processing. He was very much into the equipment.”

In 1953, Just Born acquired Rodda Candy Co., a jelly bean maker that had a facet enterprise producing formed marshmallow candies by hand. At the time, it took about 27 hours to make the marshmallows.

Bob Born noticed the candies’ potential, so he and an engineer on the firm designed and constructed a machine to make them in lower than six minutes. The firm’s present machines, that are nonetheless based mostly on Bob Born’s design, now pump out 5.5 million Peeps per day.

Seventy years later, Peeps stay Just Born’s most recognizable sweet model, the corporate says. Just Born makes round 2 billion Peeps every year, or sufficient to circle the globe two-and-a-half instances. It sells essentially the most at Easter, but additionally has variations bought for Halloween, Valentine’s Day and different holidays.

Bob Born additionally got here up with the recipe for one more well-liked Just Born sweet, Hot Tamales. Just Born additionally makes Mike and Ike fruit chews and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews.

Bob Born grew to become Just Born’s president in 1959 and held the function for greater than 30 years. He final visited the Just Born manufacturing facility on Feb. 15, 2019, when the town of Bethlehem proclaimed the primary day of the Easter season as “Bob Born Day.”

He spent most of his retirement in Florida, the place he led a literacy program and loved hobbies together with pictures. He was energetic till a couple of months earlier than he died, when he had a troublesome restoration after a tough fall.

“Bob will be remembered as a tireless and passionate advocate for the candy industry and a wonderful supporter of our community,” mentioned David Shaffer, co-CEO and chairman of Just Born, in a press release launched by the corporate.

He is survived by his widow, Patricia; kids Sara and Ross; 5 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. His funeral will likely be personal.