Wallace Amos Jr., known to the world as the founder of the Famous Amos cookie brand, didn’t really enjoy being famous.
“Being famous is highly – very, very, very highly – overrated,” he told Honolulu Magazine in 2014. “It doesn’t mean you’re a nice person. It just means your image has been shown enough times. Hitler was famous. Big deal.”
But “Famous Amos” actually was a nice person. Generations of American children are undoubtedly familiar with Amos’ cookies, which may be small in size but stand tall in our collective memory. He also advocated literacy education for children, promoting reading in the same way he promoted his cookies. Much of his work came by hosting “learn to read” shows on public television, chairing literacy commissions and using his fame to remind people of the importance of reading.
On top of his serial entrepreneurship and tireless advocacy, Amos also served in the U.S. Air Force for four years, spending much of his time in the service at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, a place he would one day return. He died in Honolulu of complications from dementia on August 13, 2024, at age 88.
Amos was born on July 1, 1936, in Tallahassee, Florida, to working-class parents. When he was 12 years old, they divorced and he was sent to New York City‘s Harlem neighborhood to live with his aunt, Della Bryant. Aunt Della, it turned out, was a skilled baker and would bake chocolate chip cookies for…
