- April 24, 2024
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Ron Rice left his mark on Ormond Beach.
The Hawaiian Tropic founder came from humble beginnings, having grown up in the mountains of North Carolina. But it was the beaches of Florida he fell in love with, and for the five decades he spent on the shore, it was clear to those who knew him that he didn't want to be anywhere else.
"He used to tell people that all the time — live where you want to live," said Bill Jennings, a former Hawaiian Tropic executive and Rice's longtime adviser. "This is where he wanted to live."
"The original garage entrepreneur," according to his LinkedIn, Rice created his suntan lotion in a garbage can in his garage after a trip to Hawaii. A high school chemistry teacher and part-time Volusia County lifeguard at the time, he had been inspired by seeing people on the beach slathering on their Coppertone suntan lotion. His obituary states that Rice then became determined to give Coppertone a run for their money.
And he did.
The first bottle of Hawaiian Tropic was sold on the beach on July 20, 1969. By 1991, Hawaiian Tropic's sales had skyrocketed to over $200 million and were produced from 13 factories around the world.
Rice, the "Suntan King," died at age 81 on Thursday, May 19.
Rice was born in Asheville, North Carolina, on Sept. 1, 1940. Described by Jennings as down-to-earth, funny, and with a little bit of country in him, Rice liked to have fun. He also liked for his employees to have fun too.
"That was, in my mind, one of the most unique features about the company," said Jennings, who stayed with Hawaiian Tropic until it was sold to Playtex in 2007. "I was coming from a CPA background into that company, and Ron — I'm not exaggerating — he cared as much about people having fun and enjoying their life as he did about making money."
Running Hawaiian Tropic was Rice's passion, Jennings said. That's why he held on to it for so long.
"That was his life and the employees were his family," Jennings said. "You know, a lot of people would have sold the company years before. Another executive and I used to always joke and say that if Ron enjoyed golf, he would have probably sold the company years before, but his life was the company."
Rice, in fact, was a terrible golfer, said Gary Connors, executive vice president of local beverage wholesaler S.R. Perrott and friend of Rice. The two used to play at Oceanside Country Club, and Connors looks back on those memories fondly.
The two met around 1970, probably around spring break, and Connors remembered the way Rice "held court."
"He'd sit in the middle of the room and everybody would talk to him," Connors said.
In 2017, Rice created Havana Sun, wanting to return to the suncare industry after his noncompete clause expired. He recently had begun to sponsor race cars again, having been the primary sponsor of the No. 4 JD Motorsports Habana Brisa Chevrolet and driver Bayley Currey in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in April at Talladega Superspeedway. Habana Brisa was his new line of reef-friendly suncare products.
“Returning to racing with Habana Brisa was an easy decision, as I have always had a special place in my heart for NASCAR," said Rice in the press release last month. "Having had a long history with NASCAR, we could not think of a better team to partner with for Habana Brisa."
Ed Kelley, a former Volusia County council chair, worked as a sales distributor and president of European Operations for Hawaiian Tropic. The first time he became exposed to the suntan lotion was in August of 1970. On the way to the Bahamas, he made a quick stop in Daytona Beach, where he picked up a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic.
He returned to his Nashville home tanner than he'd ever been. He soon became a distributor and in 1976, Rice asked him to start sales in Europe. He and Rice spent weeks at a time traveling together for Hawaiian Tropic, and made a lot of good memories — from hiding a rubber toy shark in each other's luggage to seeing Rice introduce Marla Maples, a contestant in one of Hawaiian Tropic's pageants, to former U.S. President Donald Trump, whom she later married.
"No bad ones, that's the good part," Kelley said. "... The good ones fill up your memory bank."
One thing Rice taught Kelley that has stuck with him over the years is how Rice wished others to succeed as well.
"He said, 'A person who shakes a tree to get a coconut is the one that should reap the reward," Kelley recalled. "That means those who are doing the work should be rewarded, and he created a system for allowing others to succeed."
