Tom Carvel (born Athanasios Thomas Karvelas) was born in Athens, Greece in 1906.


 When he was 4 years old, he moved with his parents to New York.


In 1932, Tom borrowed $15 from his girlfriend, Agnes Stewart, who later became his wife, and bought a used truck to sell ice cream. On Memorial Day in 1934, while driving his truck filled with ice cream in New York, Tom had a flat tire. As the ice cream started melting, he ran to a nearby pottery shop to get electricity to help save it.


When Tom returned to his truck, he found a crowd of people asking about the “soft ice cream” they had seen. Taking advantage of the situation, Tom set up a bench and began selling the ice cream. Before this, ice cream in the U.S. was always hard, frozen, and Tom’s soft ice cream was something new and exciting for the customers.


In 1936, Tom bought the pottery shop and turned it into his first Carvel ice cream store. He also used his mechanical skills to invent a machine that kept the ice cream soft. Tom Carvel is the man who invented what we now call “soft serve ice cream.”


After World War II, Carvel’s business grew and became one of the early examples of franchising. In 1947, Tom created his own brand and opened a school to train new employees. By 1981, there were 700 Carvel stores across the country, and Tom became a famous figure in American culture, appearing on TV shows like “The Simpsons” and “Saturday Night Live.”


Today, there are 341 Carvel ice cream stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Carvel also sells ice cream cakes in more than 8,500 supermarkets.


Tom Carvel passed away in 1990 at the age of 84.

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