Benjamin Rice Faunce Jr. (1873–1949) was an American

druggist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

and businessman who created the soft drink

Boost! __NOTOC__ Boost! is an American non-carbonated cola brand manufactured by the Boost! Company. The drink has been known as Tak-Aboost and Drink-Atoast throughout its history and is primarily sold in Burlington County, New Jersey. History Boos ...

and established the Boost! Company.

Early life

Faunce was born in 1873 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

to Benjamin Rice Faunce and Clarinda Lockard.

Career

Faunce later moved to Riverside, New Jersey where he became a licensed druggist in 1905. He sold remedies he had created such as headache capsules, cough syrup and toothpaste. Faunce reportedly set out to create a soft drink without bubbles and around 1910, invented a drink which he called "Tak-Aboost". He dispensed the drink in concentrated form from a soda fountain. In 1913, after years of experimenting with the drink, Faunce registered the brand as a trademark. He formed the Boost! Company on May 15, 1915, for the purpose of manufacturing and selling the product. He opened "Boost" shops in places near Riverside such as Burlington and

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early seco ...

. Faunce was president of the Boost Company until his death on April 27, 1949.

Personal life

He was married to Mable C. Lewis and later Maude F. Faunce and had three sons called B. Paul Faunce, Randle B. Faunce and E. Lester Stockton, Sr. who were employees of the Boost! Company. Faunce's granddaughter Helen Faunce Anderson also worked for the company.

References

1873 births 1949 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American inventors American drink industry businesspeople Businesspeople from New Jersey People from Riverside Township, New Jersey Pharmacists from New Jersey {{US-business-bio-1870s-stub