He was known as the "bee man" and the "buccaneer of buzz." But Burt Shavitz, who died over the weekend in Bangor at the age of 80, is most famous for being the face of Burt's Bees, the natural personal care products line he co-founded with Roxanne Quimby back in the 1980s in the back of a pickup truck in Guilford, Maine.
The story begins with a chance encounter between a reclusive, wise-cracking beekeeper and a college-educated back-to-the-lander and part-time waitress. Roxanne Quimby was hitchhiking when she accepted a ride from a guy driving an old truck. Quimby picks up the story in this 2001 profile for NPR.
"He was kind of bizarre with this long, curly, flowing hair and very independent kind of fellow," she says. "Thinks for himself."
Quimby became friendly with the eccentric beekeeper and convinced him to teach her the basics of raising bees and making honey. Shavitz told NPR he agreed because his back was bothering him and he needed the extra help.
"Beekeepers, particularly small beekeepers, traditionally work alone and there's alot of repetitive heavy lifting," he says.
The pair began what would become a professional and personal partnership making beeswax candles, soaps and honey. They hit craft fairs and roadside stands. Pretty soon the business picked up and they expanded their product line, moved into a schoolhouse and eventually a vacant bowling alley that lacked running water. They hired several dozen employees, including a teenage accountant.
"He was on the math team so he was qualified to run the accounting department," Quimby says. "He was 14."
"And made deposits," Shavitz says. "And wanted to wear a white shirt and tie everyday."
But by 1994 the growing company was struggling with high transportation costs because of its distance to major markets. Quimby and Shavitz were also frustrated by what they felt was an unfriendly business climate in Maine. So they relocated to North Carolina, where they began turning out lip balm, hand salve and a variety of products in a high-tech factory, all featuring wild-haired Burt on the label.
"This is a guy who was very true to himself and very authentic and I found had a real story to tell other than just the Burt's Bees story," says Jody Shapiro, who directed the 2013 documentary "Burt's Buzz" about the man behind the logo. "I was just fascinated by it."
In an interview with Variety last year, Shapiro said Shavitz told him when they first met that he was "an evolutionary, not a revolutionary" who lived one day at a time and never wanted to change the world.
Shavitz had been a photographer first for the Army in Germany and later for Time-Life. During the 1960s he photographed key figures in the civil rights movement, beat poets and artists before moving to rural Maine.
Here, he enjoyed a simple life in a small cabin — without electricity and running water — and being close to nature, always in the company of his golden retrievers.
"I'm less interested in the inside of whatever it is I own than on the outside of what it sits on," Shavitz says.
"I saw this tremendous contrast at play between Burt, the man, the guy who lives on the land and likes to sit around and watch the grass grow, or hear the grass grow, and this guy who goes out on, this icon that goes out on these promotional tours, like we go to Taiwan and follow him, where he's treated as a rock star," Shapiro says.
Shavitz and Quimby parted ways, personally and professionally, although Shavitz continued making promotional appearances for Burt's Bees.
In 2007 Quimby sold the company to Clorox for a reported $925 million. Shavitz reportedly made $4 million in the sale, but in the documentary seems to shun the trappings of wealth and the corporate fast-track.
"A good day is when no one shows up and you don't have to go anywhere," he says.
A spokeswoman for Burt's Bees says Shavitz died from respiratory complications. Gabrielle Laurent says the company will be exploring how to honor his memory in the weeks to come.
In an email, Roxanne Quimby says she will miss Shavitz greatly.
"Burt was a remarkable person, she wrote, "my mentor, my muse and my soulmate."
