Melvin Gordon

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Melvin Gordon died Tuesday in Boston at the age of 95 after a brief illness. His wife, Ellen Gordon, will take over his positions. Ellen Gordon, the company’s president and chief operating officer, was appointed to the jobs as part of an existing succession plan. Melvin and Ellen Gordon were married for 65 years and had four daughters. Mr. Gordon was born and raised in Boston and graduated from Harvard in 1941. He then went for military training at Camp Lee, Va., an Army base, where he became an instructor at the quartermaster school and later an editor of Quartermaster Journal. He then joined a women’s hosiery and knitwear company in Manchester, N.H., becoming its chief executive and taking it public. In 1950 he married Ellen Rubin, whose father, William Rubin, was then president of the Sweets Company of America, the maker of Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops. Tootsie Roll has a four-person board, which includes Lana Jane Lewis-Brent, 67; Richard Bergeman, 76, and Barre Seibert, 72, in addition to Ellen Gordon, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Ellen Gordon was listed as 82 years old in the company’s Feb. 28 10-K filing. Tootsie Roll has an average board age of 78, third-highest in the Russell 2000 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Gordons controlled the company through Class B stock that has 10 votes a share. They also owned about 49 percent of the common shares. Along with its namesake chocolate chews, Tootsie Roll sells candy under the Blow Pop, Dots, Junior Mints, Charleston Chews and Dubble Bubble brands. Mr. Gordon is survived by his wife, who will take over his role at the company; their four daughters, Virginia L. Gordon, Wendy J. Gordon, Lisa J. Gordon and Karen Gordon Mills, who served as administrator of the Small Business Administration in the Obama administration; and six grandchildren.