Part VIII: Marvin’s legacy
Aug. 10, 2017 — On May 9, 1993, our company suffered a major loss when founder Marvin Schwan died at the age of 64. Newspapers throughout the country carried Marvin’s obituary; some reporters labeled him “The Emperor of Ice Cream.”
Marvin had built a multibillion-dollar business and it all started from his historic first trip on March 18, 1952, when he loaded his Dodge panel van with 14 gallons of his family’s signature ice cream and set out to deliver it to families in rural Minnesota. From a one-man operation then, our company grew to include hundreds of locations and thousands of employees across the United States.
While Marvin has been gone for nearly 25 years, he left Schwan’s with a strong vision for the future.
“My vision for our future is a strong, solid, well-managed, fast-growing, exciting, innovative company with high business ethics, and an excellent reputation — a company that offers great opportunities, a place where people like to work,” Marvin said.
To honor his legacy, our company introduced the Marvin Schwan Excellence Award (originally known as the Marvin M. Schwan Heritage of Quality Award) in 1994. The award was developed as a way to honor the memory of our company’s founder and to preserve the ideals, qualities and core values that are the foundation of the company.
The award recognizes employees who best demonstrate our core values of “Growth, Hard Work, Helping One Another, Enthusiasm and Integrity” and those who exemplify our work culture.
Since 1994, 77 employees have received the company’s most prestigious honor. Every year, the award continues to be a highlight for employees as they celebrate each other’s work and successes that keep Marvin’s vision and values alive at Schwan’s.
"Dining Through the Decades” is a blog series commemorating our company’s 65 years of commitment, quality, growth and service with customers, consumers and employees all across the United States. We invite you to stay tuned throughout the year as we continue to share some of our company's best stories and highlights of how we got to where we are now."
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