Michael J Kittredge

Yankee Candle founder Michael J. Kittredge II died Wednesday July 23 2019 at a Boston hospital after a brief illness, surrounded by relatives and friends, his family said in a statement. He was 67. Kittredge launched Yankee Candle in 1969 as a teenager and grew it into the largest hand-crafted candle company in the United States before selling to an investment firm in 1998 for a reported $400 million. Kittredge graduated from South Hadley High School in 1970 and received an associate’s degree from Holyoke Community College in 1973. He returned to the candle business in 2010, when he helped his son, Michael III, start the Kringle Candle Company and the affiliated Farm Table Restaurant in Bernardston, according to the statement. Besides his son, Kittredge leaves his daughters, Kylie Madison and Casey Jean of Amherst.