Farewell, "Bee Man." Burt Shavitz, the bearded beekeeper who co-founded natural cosmetics company Burt's Bees, died on Sunday, July 5. He was 80. The entrepreneur, who suffered with respiratory issues, was surrounded by family and friends in Bangor, Maine, at the time of his passing.
"We remember him as a wild-bearded and free-spirited Maine man, a beekeeper, a wisecracker, a lover of golden retrievers," the company said in a statement on its website. "Above all, he taught us to never lose sight of our relationship with nature. Thanks for everything, Burt. You will live in our hearts forever."
Making a living selling honey out of his van in the mid-'80s, Shavitz founded Burt’s Bees with Roxanne Quimby, a single mother who impressed Shavitz by making candles and other products from his beeswax. They partnered in the 1980s, but their business relationship dissolved when Quimby moved Burt's Bees to North Carolina in 1994. In the Burt's Buzz documentary, Shavitz said he was forced out of his company because he had an affair with a college-age girl who worked at one of their retail shops.
"Burt was an enigma; my mentor and my muse. I am deeply saddened," Quimby told The Associated Press in an email.
Clorox purchased the thriving cosmetics brand for nearly $1 billion in 2007.
