Bud Hobbs, 88; made treats in shop the old-fashioned way

Bud Hobbs with his saltwater taffy machine at the Salem Willows store in 1992. (Mark Wilson/Globe Staff/file)

One-hundred years after his grandfather founded a waterfront shop in Salem Willows, Bud Hobbs was still making ice cream, saltwater taffy, and popcorn with recipes and machines his family had used for three generations. The flavors were as good as ever, and he certainly hadn't lost his taste for the trade.

"It's always seemed like a business too good to give up," he told the Globe in July 1997 as the business celebrated its centennial year.

Everett W. Hobbs, who began by working alongside his grandfather and father and in recent years made sugary treats with his children and grandchildren, died Thursday in Shaughnessy Kaplan Rehabilitation Hospital in Salem of complications from a stroke and pneumonia. He was 88 and for half a century had lived in a house that was a short walk from his Salem business.

"He had an incredible sense of humor and was very intelligent, really smart in a Yankee-type way," said his son Charles of Salem. "It's funny to see some of the repairs he did over the years to hold the place together - it was kind of ingenious."

For example, Mr. Hobbs told the Globe in 1990, if something goes amiss with the machine that twists and pulls the taffy, "I've got a couple of other machines I can cannibalize."

Taffy was just one of the treats that kept customers returning year after year, generation after generation, to the Hobbs family's two buildings with green and white awnings in the Salem Willows waterfront park.

Everett Loring Hobbs, who founded the business with a partner in 1897, bought a Nickel-Plated Rotary Popcorn Popper in 1908, which was still popping bags of popcorn long after he passed the business to his son Ralph, who in turn handed it over to his son, Everett. A Model K candy-wrapping machine, vintage 1925, also got decades of work - as did local practitioners of dental health.

"I've made a lot of dentists rich," Bud Hobbs told the Globe in 1992 as he watched taffy tumble from the wrapping machine into a metal bin. "I'm 73 and I still have my teeth, though. It must be fluoride in the water. Moderation is also good."

Mr. Hobbs was born in Lynn, where he grew up and graduated from Lynn Classical High School. His family spent summers in a cottage near the business, where he began working at 14.

"I did odd jobs, made deliveries," he told the Globe in 1992. "Outside of the time I spent in the war, I've been pretty much here."

After high school, he attended Boston University and left during World War II to serve with the Army Air Corps, which stationed him in India as a meteorologist.

"Meteorology came in somewhat handy, running a summer business," his son said with a chuckle.

Knowing a thing or two about the weather helped Mr. Hobbs with his favorite pastime, too. He was honorary commodore for life of the Salem Willows Yacht Club, where his father had been a founding member. Charles Hobbs said the yacht club was "right over the hill, so he'd take the afternoon off sometimes and go for a sail."

Mr. Hobbs, whose first marriage ended in divorce, married Patricia Maurais 40 years ago.

When he returned home from the Army Air Corps, he began working in the family businesses with his father and grandfather, who had also founded National Pop Corn Works in Lynn with his partner in 1897.

The Hobbs family later sold the Lynn plant to concentrate on the Salem Willows operation. For many years, it stayed open from April through October, though Charles Hobbs says the family now has enough holiday business to stay open from April until Christmas.

"We still use the same recipes my great-grandfather started with," he said. "Even the ice cream - I have some handwritten notes from my great-grandfather. We try to keep it old-fashioned because that's the charm."

Mr. Hobbs brought his own charm to the business as he paused to polish one his machines, greeted customers by name, or joked with employees, some of whom began working at the shop as teenagers and stayed through high school, college, and beyond.

"I try not to act too much like a boss," he told the Globe in 1992. "You can't take work and life too seriously. . . . Take it easy."

The philosophy seemed to work. He noted in the same interview that his grandfather "died two weeks before his 92nd birthday. He kept popping right up until the end."

And Mr. Hobbs "never officially retired," his son said. "He was behind the scenes, a guiding force, well into his 80s. Clean living and working hard kept him going."

"I haven't been there for 100 years, but I've been there all of my life," Mr. Hobbs told the Globe in 1997, during the centennial year. "We just keep plugging along."

In addition to his wife and son Charles, Mr. Hobbs leaves another son, William of Swampscott; two daughters, Deirdre Morneau and Priscilla, both of Salem; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Services and burial will be private.