'Candy Man' Rainer Broekel, science teacher, author; at 83

Rainer L. Broekel was ''The Candy Man."

The nameplate on the front of his car proclaimed him that. In 1984, in an anniversary parade in Ipswich, he rode in a car decorated to look like a chocolate bar. He was ''The Candy Man" in more than 100 television and radio appearances, including one on ''Sesame Street" with Oscar the Grouch.

His name will be memorialized by the American Museum of Candy History, planned for Somerset, N.J. -- possibly to open this year, according to Michael G. Rosenberg, its founder -- along with 40,000 candy memorabilia that Mr. Broekel acquired during years of collecting.

Better known as Ray, Mr. Broekel, who once served on the Ipswich school board, died yesterday at Beverly Hospital of heart failure. He was 83.

A member of Mensa International, Mr. Broekel was a brilliant science teacher and a prolific author, mainly of educational children's books. But it was his sweet tooth that made him famous.

In researching his definitive 1982 book, ''The Great American Candy Bar Book," Mr. Broekel later wrote that he gained 10 pounds tasting the candy he was writing about, said his daughter, Peggy of Natick, yesterday. Assistant tasters were his wife, Peg, who reported no weight gain, and his mutt, Fergus. From 1984 through 1995, Mr. Broekel published an international candy bar newsletter, ''The Candy Bar Gazebo." He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1991 that he sampled between 300 and 500 new candy bars a year. ''I very seldom eat a whole bar," he said. ''Usually when I sample, I take a small piece the size of a pea."

In 1990, Mr. Broekel was inducted into the Chocolate Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C. For many years, he served as historian for the National Confectioner's Association and the Chocolate Manufacturer's Association.

Mr. Broekel was always interested in candy, his daughter said, particularly in eating it in Evanston, Ill., where he grew up as the only child of immigrants from Dresden, Germany. ''His family came here in 1927, and Dad particularly liked the penny candy you could get at the time," his daughter said.

Mr. Broekel's love affair with candy was only dormant during the years he was a science teacher and writing children's books about such diverse subjects as fire fighting, ants, magic, weather, and baseball. He wrote more than 200 books and 2,000 stories in magazines and newspapers, and was associated with the Children's Press in Chicago for 40 years.

When he retired from teaching in 1989, Mr. Broekel's first love resurfaced. ''When Dad was eating a Snickers one day, he had a flashback," his daughter said. ''He thought he would write a history of candy because it played such a big part of all our lives. It was all about nostalgia."

''The Great American Candy Bar Book," published by Houghton Mifflin, ''earned Dad the reputation as the number one authority on American candy bar history," his daughter said. ''The Chocolate Chronicles" followed in 1985.

Through his newsletter, Mr. Broekel heard from candy lovers around the world. Many sent him wrappers or other candy-related items. Rosenberg, president of The Promotion In Motion Companies Inc. in Somerset, N.J., and founder of the forthcoming American Museum of Candy History, said the museum will be housed under the same roof as his confectionary and snack food company. ''We plan to acknowledge Ray's immense contribution," he said. ''Some of his pieces are indescribably magnificent."

One in particular stood out.

''When I first saw it, it made my eyes bulge," Rosenberg said. ''Ray had in his collection a salesman's sample case, the type that telescopes out, folding out to left and right. Inside, there is a treasure trove of memorable items that include the actual original filled packaging of everything from original Hershey bars to original packs of Good & Plenty and Wrigley gum packages from the early 1900s -- all unopened. All are now petrified but the perfect example of what an old-time salesman would have in his sample case. Ray told me he had found it at a flea market."

Mr. Broekel was born Rainer Lothar Broekel in Dresden, to Eugene and Hedwig (Hartmann) Broekel. With the rise of Hitler, the family immigrated to Evanston. Mr. Broekel served in the Air Force during World War II, and in 1944, he married Margaret E. McNeely. In 1948, he received a bachelor's degree from Illinois College in Jacksonville, Ill., and began his career as a junior high science teacher in Illinois in 1950. In 1955, Mr. Broekel was editor of ''My Weekly Reader" at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. He and his family moved to Ipswich in 1967, and from 1967 to 1975, he was editor in chief of the juvenile division at Addison-Wesley Publications in Reading.

Besides his wife and daughter, Mr. Broekel leaves a son, Randy, of North Conway, N.H.; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held April 22 at 1:30 p.m. in Ascension Memorial Church in Ipswich.