CLEARWATER - Timothy C. "Tim" Engel, founder and chief executive officer of Working Cow Inc., an ice cream manufacturer with customers around the state, has died at 61.
Mr. Engel, who launched the Clearwater business eight years ago, died Saturday (Sept. 20, 2003) at his St. Pete Beach home. The cause was a heart attack, his wife, Linda, said Thursday.
"He made that business," his wife said. "He made everything happen. He had a vision and a passion."
He was a vice president of GTE Mobilnet in Southern California when he began looking for a business that would bring him back to Florida. He had been a local district manager for Kreepy Krauly swimming pool cleaners.
Ice cream may have been far from his mind, although he had owned Engel's Milk Hauling in Waterford, Pa. Microbreweries, gaining popularity in the early 1990s, sounded interesting, but Mr. Engel rejected that idea.
Then he heard about an ice cream company in Clearwater that was for sale.
"I thought, I like ice cream, and I know how to make it," he said. "It seemed like a good fit for me."
He bought the business and founded Working Cow in 1995. Tim Pappas, the company president, joined the company a short time later.
Working Cow now employs 22 people and distributes its ice cream in dozens of flavors to retailers, restaurants and assisted-living facilities throughout Florida. The company had sales of $2.5-million in 2002, Pappas said, and anticipates $3.5-million this year.
Born in Niagara Falls, N.Y., Mr. Engel came here in 1980 from Erie, Pa. He was a member of Pass-a-Grille Community Church.
Survivors besides his wife of 16 years include a daughter, Sara Allison, St. Pete Beach; two sons, Brent T., Louisville, Ky., and Eric D., Waterford; a stepdaughter, Diana Healey, Santa Barbara, Calif.; his mother and stepfather, Hazel A. and Richard Legters, Pinellas Park; a sister, Carole F. Higley, Sarasota; and five granddaughters.
National Cremation Society, St. Petersburg, is in charge.
- Information from Times files was used in this obituary.
