Hyman Golden (June 11, 1923 – September 14, 2008) was one of the co-founders of the

Snapple Snapple is a brand of tea and juice drinks which is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper and based in Plano, Texas, United States. The company (and brand), which was originally known as Unadulterated Food Products, was founded in 1972. The brand achieved som ...

Beverage Corporation (now part of the

Dr Pepper Snapple Group Dr Pepper Snapple Group (also called Dr. Pepper/7up Inc.) was an American multinational soft drink company based in Plano, Texas, and as of July 2018 it is a business unit of the publicly traded conglomerate Keurig Dr Pepper. Formerly Cadbury ...

) and was the company's chairman when the firm's juice drinks and teas attained national attention in the late 1980s.

Biography

Golden was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Passaic, New Jersey Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,78 ...

, to an immigrant father from

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, and grew up in

Middle Village, Queens Middle Village is a mainly residential neighborhood in the central section of the borough of Queens, New York City, bounded to the north by the Long Island Expressway, to the east by Woodhaven Boulevard, to the south by Cooper Avenue and the forme ...

. He served in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. Golden had little formal education and one of his early jobs was as a window washer for his father. He worked as a business broker and later founded a maintenance company together with

Leonard Marsh Leonard Charles Marsh (September 24, 1906 – May 10, 1983) was a Canadian social scientist and professor. Early life and education Marsh was born in England and graduated from the London School of Economics in 1928. After graduation, he studie ...

, his wife Mitzi's brother.O'Connor, Anahad
"Hyman Golden, Co-Founder of Snapple, Dies at 85"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', September 20, 2008. Accessed September 20, 2008. "In 1980, the company introduced a line of all-natural juices with the Snapple name, which came from one of its first products, a carbonated apple juice that had a “snappy apple taste.”" Golden co-founded Unadulterated Food Products in 1972 to sell fruit juices to

health food store A health food store (or health food shop) is a type of grocery store that primarily sells health foods, organic foods, local produce, and often nutritional supplements. Health food stores typically offer a wider or more specialized selection of fo ...

s, together with Marsh and Arnold Greenberg, who himself operated a health food store in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

's East Village. Golden's partners, Marsh and Goldberg, had been childhood friends since the early 1930s, who had both attended PS 165 and

Samuel J. Tilden High School Samuel J. Tilden High School is a New York City public high school in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City. It was named for Samuel J. Tilden, the former governor of New York State and presidential candidate who, although carryin ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. The word "Snapple" was introduced for a lines of drinks introduced in the early 1980s and is derived from a carbonated apple juice. The firm's iced tea line, introduced in 1987, led to increased sales. The company, originally headquartered in

, relocated to

Valley Stream, New York Valley Stream is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. The population in the Village of Valley Stream was 37,511 at the 2010 ...

, where the partners lived. As the company grew exponentially the firm was bought out by

Thomas H. Lee Company Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. is an American private equity firm based in Boston investing in middle market growth companies across financial technology and services, healthcare and technology & business solutions. History Founded in 1974 by ...

in April 1992 for $140 million, with the three original partners retaining a one-third share of the company which had annual sales of $100 million the previous year. The company went public in December 1992 for $10 per share, split two-for-one in 1993, and was bought out by the

Quaker Oats Company The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. It has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001. History Precursor miller companies In the 1850s, Ferdinand Schumacher and Robert Stuart founded oat mills. S ...

in November 1994 for $1.7 billion, with $1.1 paying for the 68% share in the firm held by Thomas H. Lee Company, along with Hyman and his original two partners.Norris, Floyd
"Market Place; Big Winners, Big Losers In Snapple's Life Story"
''

'', November 3, 1994. Accessed September 21, 2008. The company changed hands several times over the years and is now a part of the

. Golden retired as Snapple's chairman in 1995. He died on September 14, 2008, in

Great Neck, New York Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore and includes nine villages, among them Great Neck (village), New York, Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, New York, Great Neck Es ...

of complications from a stroke.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden, Hyman 1923 births 2008 deaths American drink industry businesspeople Drink company founders People from Passaic, New Jersey People from Queens, New York American people of Romanian-Jewish descent American food company founders Samuel J. Tilden High School alumni Jewish American military personnel United States Air Force airmen 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews