Irvine (Irv) Robbins, born December 6, 1917 has passed away at the age of 90.

Robbins co-founded the chain in 1945 with his partner and brother-in-law Burt Baskin. They’re first store was called The Olympic Store and was located in Tacoma.

After being discharged from the army in 1945, Irv pursued his dreams of opening his very own ice-cream store. This dream came about from Robbins being the son of a dairyman and growing up in the family’s Tacoma, Wash., ice cream store.

BY 1948, Irv and Burt had eight stores. As the stores grew, the profits dropped because the managers didn’t put the same care into them that Irv and Burt had. Realizing that this had to change, the decision was made to sell the stores to the managers thus becoming the first food company ever to franchise their outlets. Read the rest of this entry »