Sydney Bogg was born June 11th, 1904, in England. At age 2, his family moved to Toronto, Canada where his father sought work as a carpenter. When work ran out there, his uncle invited the family to Boston, where they stayed for a time, eventually moving back to Toronto, to the house his father had built. While working at a bank in Toronto for $8 a week, he met Howard Vair, who later got him started in the candy business. When his mother died in 1921, the family moved to Detroit.

Mr. Bogg described his childhood as a “Huck Finn type of existence.” He and his brother hopped trains and rode west. During one trip he met a farm boy who got him a job in a refrigeration factory, where he worked for 13 years. Coming of age during WWI, without television or cars, he was drawn to wide-open spaces.

In the 1930’s Mr. Bogg worked for Howard Vair of Veribest Candies, on Hamilton. The job was more of an apprenticeship during which he learned the candy business. Mr. Vair was like a big brother to Mr. Bogg and in 1936 he backed Mr. Bogg for credit, as Sydney Bogg Chocolates was born. The store was on Woodward, just south of 7 mile in Detroit. Mr. Bogg and his wife Dorothy, a school teacher he married in 1931, ran the store together, with Mrs. Bogg waiting on customers during the day and Mr. Bogg making candy at night. They were open 9am to 10:30pm every day, including Sunday. For the first three years, Mr. Bogg held down job in the refrigeration business, but was able to devote himself fully to the candy business in 1939, after a very busy Christmas season.

In 1940, Mr. Bogg had more customers than candy, because sugar and chocolate were rationed due to the war. He described the business as, “The best part of our lives. It was interesting. You were the bookkeeper, the mechanic, the president, the boss, the advisor. You made all the decisions a GM CEO makes, only on a much smaller scale.”

In 1969, Mr. Bogg sold the store to Ralph Skidmore, a former employee. He still came in to work on mechanical problems at the store after he sold it, but he missed the business and the employees. Although he and Dorothy traveled the world, his heart was always with the livelihood he loved for so long.

Mr. Bogg was a wonderful, sweet man who left an awesome legacy that he passed on to Ralph Skidmore, and to all of the kids that worked there, including us. We are proud and honored to carry on the quality work, and wonderful traditions, that he and Dorothy created.