Before Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, there was Howard Wilcox. The patriarch of the Wilcox Ice Cream company, which was founded in 1928 in Manchester Village, died on May 21 of a heart attack. He was 80.

Wilcox’s roots in Manchester run deep. His family settled there in 1892 and soon established Wilcox Dairy. In 1928 — before freezers were invented — the family started making ice cream and harvested ice from nearby Equinox Pond to keep it cold.

After graduating from the University of Vermont in 1966 with a degree in animal science, Wilcox came home to run the family’s ice cream and milk delivery business while his brother, Gerald, ran their dairy farm. In 1999, the family sold their milk operation to Crowley Foods to focus on ice cream, according to the company’s website. Wilcox’s sweet cream and chocolate ice cream bases came from St. Albans Cooperative Creamery until they discontinued making it several years ago. Now, the mixes are sourced from Leiby’s Dairy in Pennsylvania.



In 2001, when a fire destroyed Wilcox’s production facility, Howard and his daughter, Christina, kept the business afloat by renting space at other factories so they could process their ice cream, according to a 2018 “Across the Fence” television episode. They also diversified the business, making it a distributor of regionally produced specialty foods, such as Against the Grain gluten-free baked goods and Half-Baked Pizza.

In 2016, the family opened a new production factory on Sweet Street in East Arlington, where Howard worked alongside Christina, Wilcox’s vice president, and son Craig, the company’s president. Reached last week, a spokesperson for the company said grieving family members were not ready to speak with the press.

Known as the “flavor master,” Howard Wilcox was the mastermind behind varieties such as mocha mud pie and raspberry cheesecake. The company distributes its tubs at more than 60 locations across the state, from chains such as Price Chopper and Hannaford to quaint general stores.

When UVM’s iconic Dairy Bar closed more than 20 years ago, the university passed along some of its original ice cream-making equipment to the Wilcox operation. In 2017, when the university relaunched the Dairy Bar, it tapped Wilcox to supply it with custom flavors, including a popular maple variety made with syrup from the university’s Proctor Maple Research Center.
Howard was “the epitome of that authentic Vermonter — committed to community, hardworking and innovative,” said Kate Finley Woodruff, UVM’s associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Around Arlington, Wilcox is remembered fondly. Allan Tschorn — owner of Chem-Clean Center, which sells power tools and gas — said Wilcox was a frequent customer.

“He always had a smile on his face,” Tschorn said. “Like the rest of us in business in Vermont, we had our struggles and we commiserated, but Howard always had a positive attitude.”

Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts said he visited the Wilcox factory last year and was impressed by the way the business had changed with the times, branching out into nondairy frozen desserts and alcohol-infused BUZZBARs, which Wilcox makes for a California-based company.

“Howard and his family … were always thinking about the future, the next project,” Tebbetts said. “Howard loved to make ice cream. He was very, very good at making ice cream.”