Life
Jerry Greenfield was born in Brooklyn, New York the son of a stockbroker, in 1951. He lived on Long Island throughout his youth until he left to attend Oberlin College in 1969. In 1963, Greenfield met Ben Cohen during gym class at Merrick Avenue Junior High School. Their initial bond formed when the gym teacher yelled at them for running the mile too slow and warned they would have to run a second mile. At this point, Cohen yelled back, "Gee coach, if I don't do it in under seven minutes the first time, I'm certainly not going to do it in under seven minutes the second time", at which point, Greenfield knew he liked him. Over the next few years, their friendship grew until the two graduated from Calhoun High School and split up to attend separate colleges.
Greenfield was known for being hard-working and studious throughout high school and when he chose to pursue a pre-med curriculum at Oberlin, it took nobody by surprise. At Oberlin, Greenfield began working as an ice cream scooper in the school's cafeteria. His favorite class was "Carnival Techniques," where he learned tricks such as eating fire, something he claims to do still on rare occasions.
After graduating in 1973, Greenfield failed twice to get into medical school. At this point, Greenfield decided to move back to New York where he shared an apartment with Cohen on East 10th Street and worked as a lab technician. In 1974, Greenfield tried another time to enter medical school, but when rejected, he decided to move to North Carolina with his future wife, Elizabeth Skarie, where he continued to work as a lab technician.
In 1976, Greenfield moved back north, this time to live with Cohen in Saratoga Springs, New York, where the pair began putting their dream of owning their own business. After initially considering opening a bagel shop, the pair turned their attention to ice cream because the equipment for such a shop was much cheaper. After taking a five dollar correspondence course in ice-cream making, the cost of which they split, the two searched for a warm-weather college town to open up shop in before settling on Burlington, Vermont. Ben & Jerry's opened in the summer of 1978.
During the 1980s, Greenfield left the business to support Elizabeth in Arizona as she pursued a Ph.D. in psychology. The couple returned to Vermont in 1985, when Greenfield assumed the position of Director of Mobile Promotions.
In 1987, Greenfield married Elizabeth, and in 1988, their son Tyrone was born. He resides in Williston, Vermont, a small town just outside of Burlington.
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