The early Hawaiian Tropic headquarters, if you could even call it that, moved 13 times. Turns out, he couldn't have picked a better one. Hawaiian Tropic was the next-best name, Rice thought at the time. In fact, Rice had no clue his original Tropic Tan name already was registered by a family in New Jersey until an attorney checked into it. “I was a pretty good salesman.”īut he wasn’t the best when it came to patents. “I knew that whatever I (made) I could sell myself and sell bottle by bottle,” Rice said. Plus, there was the pleasant smell and the customer belief that the oil actually came from Hawaii.

We were growing like crazy.”īut what made people flock to this new product? Part of the answer, Rice said, is that he had the right idea at the right time. “I paid them big money to do that work because I needed them, and I needed it done quick,” Rice said. And when it came time to apply labels to bottles, 11-year-old kids became incredibly resourceful. He wasn’t qualified to make lotions but called upon someone who could. He rubbed his concoctions on beachgoers to get a feel for what worked best.

He mixed oil in the can and came up with his own formulas - a little “A, B, C” with “X, Y, Z,” Rice said. Rice had grown the company to a $70 million business when this photo was taken on July 18, 1981. Ron Rice, founder of Hawaiian Tropic, started his suntan oil business by mixing his formulas in a trash can. “I would run around the mountain like you wouldn’t believe. He would mix mortar during the day to help build his dad’s dream home on top of the mountain. Growing up in Asheville, North Carolina, Rice could do only three things: hunt game for Sunday morning meals, play defensive end and build a house.īefore he made his way to the top, Rice climbed from his family’s home on the side of a mountain toward the peak carrying rocks. Keep scrolling for the original story documenting Rice's life, from 'mountain boy' to beach tan tycoon. Obit: Notorious Hawaiian Tropic founder and UT grad Ron Rice dies at 81 “Tennessee gave me more credit than I was really worth,” he told Knox News in 2020. His life has been filled with fast cars, celebrity encounters and “so much money we were rolling in it.”īut before his fame and fortune, Rice was just a student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville looking to capitalize on a unique opportunity after flunking out of nearly every school he attended.

Hawaiian tropic models