In 1984, Burt Shavitz was a reclusive beekeeper selling honey from the back of his truck when his life took an unexpected turn.
He picked up a hitchhiker on a Maine roadside who became his partner in romance and business. Together they turned beeswax into a brand of lip balm, soaps, lotions and other personal care products that would one day gain international appeal with its back-to-nature ethos.
Shavitz, whose bearded visage and rustic lifestyle became key to the unlikely success of natural beauty care giant Burt’s Bees, died Sunday in Bangor, Maine, of respiratory complications, a company spokeswoman said. He was 80.
The subject of a 2013 documentary called “Burt’s Buzz,” Shavitz had worked as a photojournalist in New York City before giving up big city life for a simpler existence. His chance meeting with Roxanne Quimby, a divorced mother of two thumbing for a ride in rural Maine in 1984, led to a partnership that flourished until the late 1990s, when she bought him out for $130,000.
The company was later sold to Clorox for $900 million.