David C. Bigelow’s Golden Anniversary Celebrated at Bigelow Tea!

Every industry has its giants, standard bearers who blaze trails by following best business practices and in so doing, earn the high regard of consumers, colleagues and the people they employ.

This past September, approximately 150 long-standing Bigelow Tea employees gathered to honor not only their own longevity with the company, but the lifetime achievements of its Chairman and own “gentle giant,” David C. Bigelow, who this year celebrates his 50-year anniversary at the helm.

While the company can attribute its beginnings to David’s mother who, with the advent of “Constant Comment”® in 1945, pioneered the explosion in the variety teas that Americans enjoy today, it is David, with the unwavering support of his wife Eunice, who lead it with integrity, passion, intelligence, kindness and a spirit of determination to prominence as the country’s #1 specialty tea company.

Genuine and unpretentious, David’s vision, enthusiasm for the tea business, for life and people is contagious. Never compromising…on product, the consumer or the people that make up his amazing organization, his accomplishments are many.

He can deservedly take pride in guiding Bigelow Tea to a level far beyond his mother’s wildest dreams. The launch of specialty tea to the mass market through grocery channels in the 1970’s changed the company’s direction in profound ways and paved the way for others that followed.

Other notable milestones in David’s luminous career include the development of the flavor-protecting pouch that has become the accepted industry standard for protecting tea’s freshness and flavor from ambient influences.

More recently, David and Eunice made a considerable investment in the preservation of the Charleston Tea Plantation, saving it from the developer’s wrecking ball and restoring it to its former grandeur as America’s only commercial tea farm. Today, a newly-constructed visitor’s center documents the tea growing, harvesting and withering processes and gives tens of thousands of people who visit annually a new-found appreciation for our remarkable industry.

For David, the ideas keep flowing. Having recently penned and published My Mother Loved Tea, a book that chronicles the Bigelow story, he can now add author to his long list of endeavors.

Perhaps the singular accomplishment for which he is most proud are the long-standing relationships he enjoys with his wife and company co-chair Eunice Bigelow, daughters Lori Bigelow, president of the Charleston Tea Plantation, Cindi Bigelow, president of Bigelow Tea, and devoted grandchildren. And they are equally proud of him.

Anyone involved in a family business that spans three-going-on four generations, will certainly appreciate just what an accomplishment this is.

Congratulations, David Bigelow, for giving Bigelow Tea and the tea industry your all for the past 50 years and on your lifetime of achievements!

Elaine Gavoli

Communications Manager, Bigelow Tea