Samuel Lewis Glazer (February 24, 1923 – March 21, 2012) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. Glazer founded North American Systems with his business partner, Vincent Marotta Sr. and the two also co-developed

Mr. Coffee Mr. Coffee is a brand of automatic drip-brew kitchen coffee machines and other kitchen appliances owned by Newell Brands. Founded in the early 1970s to make a pioneering coffeemaker, Mr. Coffee established itself as the industry's top-selling ...

, one of the first automatic drip

coffee maker A coffeemaker, coffee maker or coffee machine is a cooking appliance used to brew coffee. While there are many different types of coffeemakers, the two most common brewing principles use gravity or pressure to move hot water through coffee ...

s to be introduced to the American consumer market. Through their firm, Glazer and Marotta hired the engineers,

Edmund Abel Edmund Angel Abel, Jr. (May 12, 1921 – April 21, 2014) was an American engineer and inventor who designed and patented the heating element for Mr. Coffee, one of the first automatic drip coffee makers to be introduced to the American consumer ...

and

Erwin Schulze Erwin may refer to: People Given name * Erwin Chargaff (1905–2002), Austrian biochemist * Erwin Chemerinsky (born 1953), American legal scholar * Erwin Dold (1919–2012), German concentration camp commandant in World War 2 * Erwin Hauer (1926� ...

of Westinghouse, whose research produced the first Mr. Coffee machines. Introduced in 1972, Mr. Coffee proved wildly popular with consumers and revolutionized the way Americans made and consumed coffee in their homes. By 1975, just three years after its introduction, Mr. Coffee was the top selling coffee maker in the United States. The industry

trade publication A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for this a ...

''Home Furnishings News'' listed Mr. Coffee as one of the most important household consumer products introduced in the previous seventy-five years in a list published in 2002.

Early life

Glazer was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family,Cleveland Jewish News: "Samuel Glazer, Mr. Coffee co-owner, was 89" by sarah Reymend
March 14, 2012 the son of Isador and Yetta Gross Glazer, on February 24, 1923, in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

as his family's fourth child. His father died when he was six years old. Glazer supported his family by selling boots and delivering newspapers. He delivered the newspapers for the ''

Cleveland Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio; it is a major national newspaper. In the fall of 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily an ...

'' from the age of 7 until he was 18 years old, when the paper offered him a position as a district manager. Glazer served in the United States Army, stationed in the U.S. during World War II.

Career

Real estate development

Following World War II, Glazer teamed with Vincent Marotta Sr., whom he had known since both were students at

Shaker Heights High School Shaker Heights High School is a public high school located in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. The high school is the only public high school in the Shaker Heights City School District, which serves Shaker Heights and a small part ...

, to embark on numerous business ventures spanning more than sixty years. Glazer and Marotta began by selling dog food in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. They created a new company which initially sold garage doors, then expanded to real estate, constructing new shopping malls and homes nationwide, including the

Great Lakes Mall Great Lakes Mall is a shopping mall in Mentor, Ohio, U.S., on Mentor Avenue ( U.S. Route 20), approximately northeast of Cleveland. The anchor stores are Round 1 Entertainment, Dillard's, JCPenney, and Dick's Sporting Goods. There are two va ...

Mentor, Ohio Mentor ( ) is the largest city in Lake County, Ohio, United States. The population was 47,450 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. Mentor was first settled in 1797. In 1876, James A. Garfield purchased a home in ...

Mr. Coffee

During the late 1960s, Glazer and Marotta purchased a coffee delivery company in the

Cleveland metropolitan area The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to the 2020 census results, the six-county Cleveland, OH ...

. Included in the sale were the coffee company's trucks, which brewed coffee in giant, stainless steel coffee dispensers which were not portable. According to Glazer's son, customers would ask if there were household coffee makers available, giving Glazer and Marotta the idea for a new home drip brew coffee maker. Glazer and Marotta sold off much of their real estate holdings to finance research and development for their coffee making venture. Before Glazer and Marotta developed Mr. Coffee, there were only two main ways that consumers could make coffee at home: a

coffee percolator A coffee percolator is a type of pot used for the brewing of coffee by continually cycling the boiling or nearly boiling brew through the grounds (coffee), grounds using gravity until the required strength is reached. The grounds are held in a ...

instant coffee Instant coffee is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans that enables people to quickly prepare hot coffee by adding hot water or milk to coffee solids in powdered or crystallized form and stirring. The product was first invented in Inver ...

. The partners hired away two engineers from Westinghouse, Edmund Abel and Erwin Schulze, to develop a consumer coffee maker that could fit in any kitchen. The engineers developed the Mr. Coffee machine, which used a

heating element A heating element is a device used for conversion of electric energy into heat, consisting of a heating resistor and accessories. Heat is generated by the passage of electric current through a resistor through a process known as Joule heating. He ...

drip brew Drip coffee is made by pouring hot water onto ground coffee beans, allowing it to brew while seeping through. There are several methods for doing this, including using a filter. Terms used for the resulting coffee often reflect the method ...

coffee through grounds into a glass coffee pot. The machine was designed to not heat the water over , which lessened the chances of brewing bitter coffee. Glazer and Marotta's company, North American Systems, introduced Mr. Coffee in 1972. The company sold approximately one million coffee machines by 1975, making Mr. Coffee the top selling coffee maker in the country. By the late 1970s, Mr. Coffee had more than half the coffeemaker market share in the United States. The partners sold North American Systems to a securities firm in 1987 for $182 million. As of 2012, Mr. Coffee is a brand owned by the

Sunbeam Corporation Sunbeam Products is an American company founded in 1897 that has produced electric home appliances under the Sunbeam name since 1910. Its products have included the Mixmaster mixer, the Sunbeam CG waffle iron, Coffeemaster (1938–1964) and ...

. Glazer developed a habit of sending Mr. Coffee coffeemakers to friends, who included notable figures in entertainment and business. Glazer developed a long friendship with comedian

Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and w ...

. According to Glazer's wife, Jeanne, he sent so many coffeemakers to Carson that the late night television host told him, "Please, Sam, no more coffee machines!"

Philanthropy

Glazer was a supporter of the Cedar Sinai Synagogue, Suburban Temple-Kol Ami, and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

Personal life

Samuel Glazer died from leukemia at the

Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Academic health science center, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an O ...

in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 21, 2012, at the age of 89. A resident of

Beachwood, Ohio Beachwood is a city in eastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census the city's population was 14,040. A suburb of Cleveland, it is a part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. History The land that eventually became Beachwo ...

, he was survived by his wife, Jeanne, and his son. Glazer wintered in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

for twenty-five years, where he owned a home in Pelican Bay, an exclusive community developed by Westinghouse. Glazer's longtime business partner Vincent Marotta told the

, "Sam Glazer and I were business partners for 60-some years and close friends longer than that... He was a true and faithful friend and a wonderful partner."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glazer, Samuel 1923 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists American chief executives of food industry companies American drink industry businesspeople American food company founders American investors American businesspeople in real estate Businesspeople from Cleveland Businesspeople from Florida Deaths from leukemia in Ohio People from Beachwood, Ohio People from Naples, Florida People from Shaker Heights, Ohio United States Army personnel of World War II 21st-century American Jews