The Food World Mourns The Death Of Bob Born, The Father Of Peeps

Ira "Bob" Born, the man largely responsible for bringing Peeps into the world, died on Sunday at the age of 98, per a Facebook announcement shared by his eponymous candy company, Just Born Quality Confections. Born long served as the president of Just Born after the death of his father, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who founded the company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania when Bob was just a baby. According to NPR, he leaves behind his widow, Patricia, and two children, Sara and Ross, as well as five grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

While Just Born had been slinging candy since 1924, it wasn't until the 1950s that it became synonymous with Peeps, one of America's cutest and most recognizable springtime (and, more recently, autumnal) candies. That's all thanks to Born, also known as the "Father of Peeps," who used his engineering background to identify a novel mechanic process that allowed marshmallows to be churned out in droves, or, shall we say, flocks. 

Bob Born was as passionate about science and engineering as he was about candy. His son, Ross, told Lehigh Valley News that his dad was "very much into the equipment" involved in confection-making, adding that he was a "Renaissance man with many talents." 

According to The Washington Post, Born joined the Navy as a radar specialist after receiving a degree in engineering physics from Pennsylvania's Lehigh University in 1944. Later, he continued his studies of math and physics at the University of Arizona and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His next move was medical school, and although he was accepted into a program, he decided to hop into his father's candy business instead. 

Shortly after joining the Just Born team, he noticed that workers had to put a lot of time and effort into hand-shaping Peeps using pastry tubes. He moved things along by creating a machine that cut down marshmallow production time from 27 hours to six minutes, per the company. Today, NPR reports that Just Born makes about 2 billion of the impossibly fluffy candies every year, which bear the likeness of chicks, bunnies, and other adorable critters. 

In addition to his major contribution to the Peep-verse, Born also played a big part in the invention of spicy, cinnamon-flavored Hot Tamales.