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Our Founder
The story of Amedeo Obici (Ah-may-day-o O-bee-chee)
is one born of an Italian immigrant’s hard work and ambition.
At the time of his death, his company, the Planters Nut and Chocolate
Company, had become a known brand worldwide, but its beginning was
owed to the hard work and ambition of the young Obici.
Amedeo Voltejo Obici was born in the small town of Oderzo, Italy,
near Venice, to Pietro Lodovico Obici and Luigia Carolina Sartor
Obici. His father died unexpectedly when he was seven years old,
a tragic event that forced his mother to sell the family business.
It was Luigia’s brother, Vittorio Sartor, who suggested that
young Amedeo come to live with him in Scranton, PA. At age 11, Amedeo
boarded a steamer bound for America. He spoke no English, and upon
arriving in New York City, instructions tied to his overcoat said
he was to go to his uncle’s house.
Amedeo Obici’s new life started in Scranton, where he learned
English during night school and worked during the day to save money
for his family’s passage to America. His various jobs included
working at a cigar factory, a fruit stand, as a hotel bellhop, and
eventually for a local politician. Here he befriended a fellow Italian
immigrant, Mario Peruzzi, who would become his future business partner.
It is said that while working at the fruit stand he noticed the
popularity of peanuts as a snack.
In 1895, seven years after his arrival, he had saved enough money
to bring his mother and two siblings over. He used the rest of his
savings to purchase his own fruit stand and a peanut roaster. He
developed a new way to blanch the nuts, taking away the hulls and
skins, and dubbing himself “The Peanut Specialist”,
started peddling peanuts by horse and wagon.
In 1906 Amedeo convinced his friend Mario
Peruzzi to join him in forming Planters Peanut Company in Scranton.
His future was now firmly entrenched with the peanut, and two years
later the company was incorporated as Planters Nut and Chocolate
Company. The peanut and candy business quickly proved a great success
for the two Italian Americans.
While keeping company headquarters in Scranton, the manufacturing
side of Planters moved to Suffolk VA in 1913. The move cut out the
middlemen and put the company in the heart of the area from which
most of their peanuts were bought. It was also in Suffolk where
the infamous Mr. Peanut was born. The enduring character was created
by 13-year old Anthony Gentile, who entered his drawing in a logo
contest sponsored by Obici. A company artist then refined the drawing,
adding the monocle, cane and top hat.
Amedeo Obici married Louise Musante in Scranton and the couple permanently
moved to Suffolk around 1920. In 1924 they purchased the Bay Point
Farms estate, where they relocated, remodeled and expanded an 1870s
farmhouse and raised dairy cows.
The Obicis became generous neighbors in their new hometown. Although
the couple could not have children of their own, they often held
events at Bay Point Farms for local children. Civic groups and the
military were invited for visits to their home, and a clubhouse
was built on their estate to be used by Planters’ employees
for their recreation.
After his wife’s death in 1938, Amedeo
decided to build a hospital in her name as a lasting legacy. He
died in 1947, and in 1951 Louise Obici Memorial Hospital was built
from a trust funded by Amedeo Obici. Money from the trust benefited
both the hospital and the Suffolk community over the next half a
century, and was one of two sources that funded the Obici Healthcare
Foundation. Amadeo Obici was one of the area’s most important
philanthropists, a man who came to his new homeland with nothing,
built a successful business, and generously shared his success with
his Suffolk neighbors.
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