Founder Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies Current: Founder The Uncle No Name Cookie Company – Kailua, Hawaii
As Founder of the Famous Amos Cookies in 1975, he is probably better known as the father of the gourmet chocolate chip cookie industry and has since then become a household word. Born in Tallahassee, Florida, Amos lived with his parents until he was twelve when he then moved to New York, lived with an aunt, and attended the Food Trades High School in Manhattan. During his senior year he dropped out and joined the Air Force; completed his GED high school equivalency requirements; was honorably discharged from the service and began training at New York secretarial school. Besides being an entrepreneur, Wally is also a lecturer, a product spokesman, an actor, a teacher/host for Public Broadcasting as well as the author of his autobiography, The Fact That Launched A Thousand Chips and also collaborated with his son, Gregory, on The Power In You, an inspirational book sharing Wally’s life experiences and philosophies. Wally Amos has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards. To name just a few: the Horatio Alger Award, Babson College Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs, the President’s award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, the National Literacy Honors Award and an Honorary Doctorate in Education from Johnson and Wales University. He has also given “the shirt off his back” and his trademark battered Panama hat to the Smithsonian Institution’s Business Americana Collection. Mr. Amos and his wife and creative partner, Christine, reside in Hawaii. “You can do anything you think of … if you couldn’t do it, you never would have thought of it.”
