Gertrude Jones Hawk

Gertrude Hawk was central to the company's financial success due to her development of fundraising networks in which local civic institutions could resell chocolates to support their own programs.

[3] It also supplies chocolate and confections to other food manufacturers such as Ben and Jerry’s, Turkey Hill Dairy, The Hershey Company, Nestle and Fanny May.

[2] In 1936, during the Great Depression, Gertrude began making chocolates from the kitchen of their home in the Bunker Hill section of Scranton in order to supplement the family's income.

[4] After returning from service in World War II, her son Elmer R. Hawk joined the family business and invested in the purchase of mechanical chocolate-making equipment.

[2][4] In the 1940s Gertrude greatly expanded their home chocolate production by creating and promoting fundraising sales among local area schools, civic associations and churches.

[2] Her visionary fundraising alliances allowed the company to go beyond direct sales and advertise among a broad section of the local community, thus increasing profits considerably, to over $125,000 per year by 1959.