Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Burt Shavitz, Jewish Burt’s Bees Founder, Dies at 80

Burt Shavitz, co-founder and namesake for natural care product company Burt’s Bees, has died, the company said on Sunday. He was 80.

Shavitz, a “a wild-bearded and free-spirited Maine man” and beekeeper, co-founded the company with artist Roxanne Quimby in 1984, the company said in a statement.

The pair started off making candles from beeswax before developing a few years later the lip balm that exploded the company’s popularity and remains its best selling product, it said.

“It is with broken hearts that we must convey the saddest news: Burt Shavitz, our co-founder and namesake, has left for greener fields and wilder woods,” the company said in a statement on Facebook.

A company spokeswoman told USA Today that Shavitz died of respiratory issues on Sunday surrounded by family and friends in Bangor, Maine.

The company was acquired by Clorox Co in 2007.

This video features the Jewish beekeeper Liane Newton in New York City.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.