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Since he was a kid, Milton S. Hershey had a sweet tooth. A really, really sweeeeet tooth. So much so that in 1873, when he was only fifteen, he became an apprentice to a confectioner in Philadelphia rather than finishing school. From there he struck out on his own. Some years later he opened his first candy shop. It failed.

Next he tried the same thing in Chicago. It also failed. But not one to give up, Milton opened a third candy shop in New York City. Guess what? It also failed. He was left penniless.

To be sure, he had three strikes against him. Yet he was undeterred. In1883, Milton returned to Pennsylvania where he founded the Lancaster Caramel Company. Eleven years later, the Hershey Chocolate Company opened as a subsidiary of the caramel company.

Believing that the secret to excellent chocolate was in the milk, Milton built his own milk-processing plant so that he could create and refine a recipe for his milk chocolate candies. In 1900, the Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar was born. Praise be to Milton!!!

The use of fresh milk was the key. This had become apparent—in particular after seeing chocolate-making machines for the first time at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago—that he was convinced he needed to concentrate on chocolate alone. Hence, he sold his caramel company for a cool one million dollars. (That would be equal to $36,624,000 today!) Who said Milton wasn’t a businessman?

With that cash, things really started to rev up. He decided to stay home and build his chocolate plant right there in his hometown. After all, it was an inexpensive place to live for workers and their families. Strategic thinking was everything. Milton went so far as to design his factory without windows so that the employees would not be distracted. To counteract this, he bolstered employees’ morale by providing leisure activities. These would one day grow into Hersheypark. It was a raving success.

In 1907, Hershey introduced a new candy: a flat-bottomed conical piece of chocolate that looked as if it had been squeezed from of a toothpaste tube. He named it “Hershey Kiss.” In the beginning each piece was wrapped by hand in a square of aluminum foil, a slow and tedious process. It took fourteen years, but finally in 1921, this task was sped up with the introduction of machine wrapping. To add some flair, a small paper ribbon was added to each candy to indicate that it was a genuine Hershey product. Today, over 70 million Hershey kisses are produced each day!

Interestingly, in all this time, Milton refused to advertise. He also became a committed philanthropist and eventually turned the bulk of his fortune over to the M.S. Hershey Foundation which built homes, parks and schools for the residents of the town he founded, Hershey, Pennsylvania.

You may be familiar with some of his early candies: Mr. Goodbar in 1925, Hershey’s Syrup in 1928, and the Krackel Bar in 1938.

Later the H.B. Reese Candy Company merged with Hershey’s in 1963. With this acquisition came the already famous Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Only six years later, this would become Hershey’s top seller. In 2012, Reese’s was the best selling candy in the U.S. with sales of $2.603 billion.

Candy, however, was not the only product on Milton Hershey’s mind. From 1938 to 1952 he also made toilet soap. The Great Depression was over and there was a big boom in hygiene-related products such as shampoo, toothpaste and perfume. With that in mind, he opened a store on the Atlantic City Boardwalk where he sold cocoa butter scented toilet soap. For several decades the shop was a success.

Just the same, I do think Milton missed the boat when he failed to come up with bacon flavored Hershey kisses.

Despite this oversight, he also made a brief foray into cough drops when Hershey’s acquired Luden’s. Following this, an assortment of other companies were purchased including the Mauna Loa Macadamia Company, as well as factories making snack foods, protein bars, beer and pretzels.

Milton and his wife were never able to have children of their own. It was this emptiness in their lives that inspired them to found the Hershey Industrial School in 1909 for white orphaned boys. (Whoa! That “white” and “boys only” would never fly today!)

In 1918, three years after the death of his wife, Milton donated $90 million to this boarding school as well as 40% of the company’s common stock. The school’s initial purpose was to train young men in the trades, but in time its focus changed to preparing students for college.

Another contribution to education was Elizabeth College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. Additionally the Hershey company has helped build a sustainable supply chain to support basic nutrition for the children in Ghana where much of the company’s cocoa beans are grown. They, as well, have a long standing partnership with the Children’s Miracle Network, Ronald McDonald House and the United Way.

Still, at the end of these sweet sugary days, all this goodness does beg the question of why Hershey never helped fund fillings for people’s teeth!