Charles Entenmann, the entrepreneur who helped turn his family’s bakery business, Entenmann’s, into an iconic household brand, died last month at age 92.
For those unaware, Entenmann’s story is a quintessentially American one. The family business was founded by Charles’s grandfather, William, in Brooklyn, New York, in 1898. An immigrant from Germany, William would deliver freshly baked goods door to door out of his horse-drawn wagon. The bakery relocated to Bay Shore, Long Island, in the early 1900s. But roughly half a century later, Charles—alongside his mother and two brothers—decided to start selling the bakery’s specialties to supermarkets. The rest, as they say, was history. Entenmann’s went on to earn loyal fans with its impossibly soft mini chocolate chip cookies, crumbly coffee cake, and classic chocolate glazed donuts, which could all be tantalizingly glimpsed through Entenmann’s iconic see-through packaging. It's now owned by Bimbo Bakeries.