Walter Lappert

Walter Lappert, (22 March 1921 – 1 September 2003) at the age of 61, founded a business in Kauai to manufacture and sell "super-premium" ice cream based on family recipes from his European upbringing. He rode a wave of enthusiasm for gourmet luxury foods using fresh, high-quality local ingredients in Hawaii. Using Belgian chocolate, vanilla beans from Madagascar, local macadamia nuts, guava, and coffee beans from Kona, Lappert created a menu of 125 flavors.

Life before ice cream

Lappert was born in Austria to a French father and an Austrian mother. He grew up in Prague, with Austrian grandparents who owned a shop "where they made apple strudels and sold coffee, and in summertime, when the fruit was ripe, they made peach or strawberry ice cream."

Lappert joined the French Army at 17, earning the rank of lieutenant, and was wounded in combat during World War II. After the war, Lappert spent many years in South America where he was a distiller in Ecuador and became the purveyor of liquor to the Venezuelan military. A store in Koloa, a historic town near the popular sunny beaches of Poipu, and near Lappert's one-bedroom apartment, followed. Lappert adopted the Koloa store as an unofficial headquarters and was often found there, dressed in quintessential Hawaiian fashion of shorts, sandals, and flowered shirt, wearing a small cap and a white beard and accompanied by his black Labrador Maxi, chatting with tourists and locals after a dip in the surf. He made his personality part of his brand, integrating his smiling face into his labels and ads