Bill Harmsen (June 20, 1912, in Saint Paul, Minnesota – April 10, 2002 in Wheat Ridge, Colorado) was one of the creators of the Jolly Rancher brand of hard candies.
His wife Dorothy Harmsen was born on September 3, 1914, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and died on August 29, 2006, of a heart attack at age 91.
The company was purchased by Hershey in 1996, and Jolly Rancher has become one of America's most popular hard candies with over a dozen flavors and millions sold since their creation.
After his leaving the business, the Harmsens became even more involved in collecting Western Art and writing about it with their own publishing company.
[1] Some of the pieces in their collection included works by artists such as Alfred Miller, George Catlin, Joseph H. Sharp, Victor Higgins, Frederic Remington, and Robert Henri.