Starbuck's And Red Hook Founder Bowker Dies

 Ask most people who founded Starbuck's and they probably would say Howard Schultz and it's true that he would become the face of the company, but the real founder was a man named Gordon Bowker. 

I read about Bowker in a column in a Seattle newspaper, years ago.  

He would also help create another Seattle brand, Red Hook, a micro-brew beer.  At one time, you could say Red Hook and Starbuck's in the same sentence.  Of course, Starbuck's exploded, Red Hook, not so much.  

He was also involved in Advertising in the Seattle area. 

A while back, I saw a movie called "The Founder" on how a milkshake machine salesman, Ray Kroc, took over McDonald's and brought it to international fame, and Starbuck's story is eerily similar. Schultz was a coffee machine saleman.  

Bowker died late last month at 82.  This article in the Post Alley blog pays tribute to him. Click here.