In 1915, shortly after her father’s passing, 12-year-old, Scranton-born Gertrude Jones left school and went to work to support her family. She landed a job at Scranton Dry-Goods, a popular downtown candy shop. Aside from bringing home a modest paycheck for the family, the ambitious teenager also discovered her true passion – chocolate. She loved making it, perfecting it and most of all the difficult and fading art of hand-dipping.

It was necessity that drove young Gertrude to find that first job in the candy shop. And while she would soon marry and start a family of her own, that initial spark of creativity, that pure sense of discovery never left her. “She wanted to become, at the time, the pinnacle of the art of chocolate-making and that was a chocolate dipper,” says David Hawk, Gertrude’s grandson and 3rd Generation owner of Gertrude Hawk Chocolates.

By 1922, she had met and married Elmer Hawk, a local businessman and car salesman. They soon welcomed two boys, Elmer R. and Richard. The young Hawk family settled into a modest life on Mark Ave. in Scranton’s quiet Bunker Hill neighborhood. Then, in 1929, with the Great Depression looming, hardship would find Gertrude Hawk once again.

And so, too, would chocolate.

An opportunity where there seemingly was none

As the Depression ravaged local economies, decimated personal fortunes, vaulted unemployment to beyond any reliable measure and left working families facing unthinkable decisions, Gertrude Hawk found herself at a familiar crossroads. Yet again, necessity and family would call her to action. This time around, however, she saw it as an opportunity. This time, she had experience on her side.

In 1936, Gertrude, with the support of her husband, founded Gertrude Hawk Chocolates in the family’s humble, but workable kitchen. Sure, selling hand-dipped chocolates during the waning years of the Depression seemed a little far-fetched, but Gertrude also had a plan for that.

Building a brand network

The idea was simple. Offer chocolates at a discount to local churches, schools and other civic organizations, who, in turn, could then sell the chocolates for a profit. “Today, we call that fundraising,” according to David. “That was revolutionary at the time, and that’s how she really started the business in her kitchen.”

The move would put Gertrude Hawk Chocolates on the map, so to speak. And it would also manage to keep the young business afloat in a competitive marketplace through the height of WWII. “It was my father that came along after the war and said, ‘Mom, I think we can make that hobby a business.’ And she said, I think you’re crazy.”

Now it’s a family business

In the mid-40s, Gertrude and Elmer’s son, Elmer R. Hawk returned from service in WWII and, along with his wife, Louise, jumped right into the family business. The country had begun its entry back into a peacetime economic boom. Soon, with Gertrude focusing on the fundraising program and Elmer and his father managing production and retail, the small, kitchen-based chocolate factory flourished.

Out of the Kitchen and Onto the Assembly Line

An Abrupt Move Inspires Expansion in Dunmore

The wheels of progress, in the form of the Interstate Highway System came rolling through Northeastern Pennsylvania. To make way for I-81 through northeastern Scranton, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation needed to cut a line straight through Mark Ave. – a path that included the Hawk household and their small chocolate factory. This precipitated the next phase of Gertrude Hawk Chocolates.

In 1963, only 3-miles from their old home, the family built their first manufacturing facility on Drinker Street in Dunmore.

The new factory included its very own retail candy shop and an on-site restaurant. Gertrude and Elmer Sr. lived in an apartment on the second floor. As production scaled up throughout the 60s, Gertrude Hawk Chocolates grew to become one of the most recognizable names in the industry. Around the same time, Gertrude would also retire to allow her husband, her sons and grandchildren to continue building the legacy.

Risk and Innovation Changes the Game

David Hawk joined his father in the family business in 1971.

For him, hardly a thought was wasted on the matter. “Since I was 5 years old, I was fascinated with it. I just couldn’t get enough of it,” he quips with a chuckle. “Kids would want to go out and play baseball, and I wanted to go to work with my dad.”

For David, evolving, growing and adapting are crucial to surviving in business. And it wasn’t long before the enterprising executive discovered an opportunity to innovate. In the early 1980s, he found a shop in England that was producing a one-shot shell molder for candy that both injected a flavored center and created an outer shell. “This was such a revolutionary idea that most people in the industry didn’t really believe it would work.”

And like that, your favorite chocolate was born

With the green light from his father, David purchased the machine and got right to work installing it in the Dunmore factory. The line was up and running just in time for the Christmas production season. And the very first product was an adorable, peanut butter-filled chocolate that they would come to call the Smidgen. “That was forty years ago,” David beamed. “It was our number one product that year, and it has been so every year since.”

“It’s a fun business. If you can’t have fun eating chocolate for heaven’s sake, what are you going to have fun with?” — David Hawk

Today, in their newest, up-scaled, 150,000 square foot factory and corporate headquarters just across the street, Gertrude Hawk Chocolates produces over 100 unique candy creations. And those wheels never stop turning. Every season seems to bring about something new and innovative.

Growth at Home and Beyond

“I think the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania are some of the greatest people in the whole world.” – David Hawk

From its origin in 1936, with just young Gertrude hand-dipping chocolates at her kitchen table, Gertrude Hawk Chocolates has grown to well over 1,000 employees. They operate over 70 retail shops in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The company also features four distinct divisions: Ingredient and Contract manufacturing, Retail Chocolate Shops, Manufacturing and Fundraising.

And this truly unprecedented growth, according to David Hawk, stems from the local workforce that has sustained the family business since the 1960s. “They come to work and they really feel as though they’re doing more than just earning some money,” he said.

A long way from Bunker Hill

Today, David Hawk enjoys a quieter (semi-)retirement with his wife Ann by his side. Together, they oversee the Hawk Family Foundation, fulfilling a lifelong dream of one day giving back to this beloved community that has given them so much. David and Ann’s children, whom everyone affectionately refers to as G4 (fourth generation) have assumed ownership of the company.

The story of Gertrude Hawk Chocolates starts in a simple place with a 12-year-old girl and a dream of one day becoming a chocolate dipper.

For 88 years, that same story weaves in and out of economic and political turmoil. Industries rise and fall as it bends alongside generations of the humble, hard-working Scranton family bearing its name. It continues beyond changes and innovations, through evolving trends and well after the long lives of its founders. And perhaps that’s precisely where we find the most impressive turn of this great American tale – that it simply continues.

In 2018, Gertrude Hawk was inducted into the National Confectioners Association’s Candy Hall of Fame. David accepted the award in her honor.