Frank Epperson

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Frank Epperson
Born	Francis William Epperson August 11, 1894 San Francisco, California, U.S.
💀Died	October 22, 1983 (aged 89) California, U.S.October 22, 1983 (aged 89)
Resting place	Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California
💼 Occupation	Real estate agent, inventor
Known for	Inventing the Popsicle
👩 Spouse(s)	Mary Epperson

Francis William "Frank" Epperson (August 11, 1894 – October 22, 1983) was an American inventor and real estate agent best known for creating the ice pop, later marketed under the brand name Popsicle. He was granted United States patent #1,505,592 in 1924 for "frozen confectionery," and the treat he devised as a child became one of the best-known frozen desserts in the world.

Early life and invention

Epperson was born in San Francisco, California, in 1894. His family moved across the bay to Oakland around 1907. According to the account Epperson gave in later life, on a cold night in 1905 he left a glass of powdered soda mix and water with a wooden stirring stick on the back porch overnight; the mixture froze solid by morning, and he pulled the flavored ice free by the stick and tasted it. He named the result the "Epsicle," a combination of his surname and the word "icicle."

Later research has questioned whether the accident occurred in San Francisco in 1905, as the recorded low temperature in the city that year was 39 °F (4 °C)—not cold enough to freeze water. The only year between 1894 and 1924 that San Francisco reached 32 °F (0 °C) was 1922, by which time Epperson lived in Oakland, where freezing temperatures did occur in several winters between 1908 and 1924. Epperson himself, in a 1971 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, described the invention as having taken place when he was a boy, though he may have conflated the date and location in retelling the story decades later.

Career and commercialization

As an adult, Epperson worked as a real estate agent for the Realty Syndicate Company in Oakland. In 1922, he introduced his frozen treat at a Fireman's Ball held at Neptune Beach, a waterfront amusement park in nearby Alameda. He and his wife, Mary, brought the frozen novelties to the event, where they proved popular with attendees. He began selling the treats to the public at Neptune Beach that year.

Encouraged by the response, Epperson applied for a patent on what he described as a "frozen confection of attractive appearance, which can be conveniently consumed without contamination by contact with the hand and without the need for a plate, spoon, fork or other implement." The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the patent (No. 1,505,592) on August 19, 1924. His patent illustration specified the ideal woods for the stick: basswood, birch, or poplar.

Epperson originally called his commercial product the "Eppsicle," but his children and their friends began referring to it as "Pop's 'Sicle," and the shorter name—Popsicle—was adopted. By 1928, Epperson was earning royalties from Popsicle sales, with some accounts estimating he received more than $60,000 before the stock market crash of 1929 forced him to sell his patent rights to the Joe Lowe Company (which operated the Popsicle Corporation). He later expressed regret over the sale: "I was flat and had to liquidate all my assets. I haven't been the same since."

Epperson also invented "High-Dry," a powdered drink mix that became a forerunner of later products such as Kool-Aid and Tang.

Personal life

Epperson lived at 3300 Kingsland Avenue in the Maxwell Park neighborhood of Oakland, according to the 1940 United States census. He and his wife, Mary, had children. After a career in real estate, Epperson retired in 1968 and moved with his family to Fremont, California.

Death and legacy

Epperson died on October 22, 1983, at the age of 89. He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, where his grave is featured on an annual "Food Tour" celebrating local food pioneers that includes Domingo Ghirardelli, Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron, and the Folger Coffee family.

The Popsicle brand changed hands several times after Epperson's sale: Consolidated Foods Corporation (later Sara Lee Corporation) acquired it in 1965; Gold Bond Ice Cream Company took over U.S. operations in 1986; and Unilever purchased the brand in 1989, folding it into the Good Humor-Breyers division. The Joe Lowe Company had earlier introduced the two-stick "twin" Popsicle during the Great Depression, selling the pair for five cents so that two children could share one treat. Good Humor and Popsicle were involved in a series of lawsuits over whether Popsicle's products constituted ice cream or water-based sherbet, with the courts ultimately assigning Popsicle the territory of water-based frozen treats.

More than 2 billion Popsicles are sold annually worldwide, with orange among the most popular flavors. Epperson lived to see the 50th anniversary of his patent celebrated with a commemorative plaque and a photograph of him enjoying a Popsicle with his granddaughter. He later reflected on the loss of the brand name: "Epsicle was not a good name. I should have protected the name. Popsicle."

Further reading

• Pope, Shelby (July 22, 2015). "How An 11-Year-Old Boy Invented The Popsicle". NPR.

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