Richard Wood, who steered Fernwood Candy and Ice Cream for 70 years, dies at 95

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Fernwood's chocolate mint sandwiches are a Utah holiday candy tradition. The company's longtime owner, Richard Wood, passed away last weekend at the age of 95.

He turned the family business from ice cream shops to selling its mint-chocolate treats in retail stores.

During World War II, George and Leah Wood had a handful of grocery stores called Woods Goods & Goods, then sold those off to get into the ice cream and candy business, opening up the first Fernwood Ice Cream & Candy Store in 1947. When Richard returned from serving in the Army, he immediately started running the store. When George and Leah died, Richard and his wife, Lorraine, took over the business.

In the 1970s, as fast-food restaurants were expanding, Richard Wood started to rethink Fernwood’s business model. By the 1990s, Fernwood had closed its ice cream parlors, and pivoted toward selling candies during the holidays — including its most popular product, the chocolate mint sandwich, which George and Leah had started making in 1959, from a recipe a confectioner on the East Coast had given them when they visited once.

“My first job was to take the little candy eyes, dip it in the chocolate, and stick it on a chocolate Easter bunny,” he said. “When we were little kids, we would put one eye on the Easter bunny, and one candy eye in our mouth. It was really fun. Then we graduated, and started making ice cream. … And then when we were teenagers, we would work in the stores, and we would scoop ice cream cones, and make floats.

Richard Wood said the day he sold his company was a sad day, because he loved making candy and chocolates and ice cream, because all those things make people happy, and he enjoyed making people happy.

 

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