Eskimo Pie Inventor C. Nelson Dies at 98 : Obituary: His chocolate-covered ice cream bar, developed in 1921, became a confectionary institution.

An indecisive 8-year-old boy led Christian K. Nelson to his venerable perch in history as the inventor of that American confectionary institution, the Eskimo Pie.

The year was 1921 and Nelson, then a schoolteacher in Onawa, Iowa, spent his spare time running a local candy shop. One day, the story goes, a young customer couldn’t decide for the life of him whether to buy a chocolate bar or a scoop of ice cream.

That started Nelson thinking: Why not combine both? So after months of experimenting, he came up with a revolutionary new product--an ice cream bar stuck on a stick and coated with chocolate. It became a national sensation, eventually inspiring hundreds of imitators and sparking a whole new industry in novelty ice creams.

Nelson died in a Laguna Hills nursing home Sunday, just four days short of his 99th birthday.

“He was a wonderful man,” said Elisabeth Nelson, the inventor’s sister-in-law. “Eskimo Pies were his life; I think he was pleased that he had made a contribution.”

Said Gaylynn Van Vleck, executive secretary to the president of Eskimo Pie Corp. in Richmond, Va., which continues to make record profits each year on the fast-selling ice cream bar: “He was pretty much like the grandpa of the company. He was interested in Eskimo Pies right up to the end.”

The man whose idea shaped the tastes of generations of sweet-toothed Americans had modest beginnings.

A native of Denmark, he came to the United States near the turn of the century and received a teaching certificate from the University of Nebraska. In inventing the chocolate-covered ice cream bar, Nelson came up with a formula using cocoa butter to create a flowing chocolate concoction that would stick to ice cream. He went into partnership with candy confectioner Russell Stover, patented the Eskimo Pie and created Eskimo Pie Corp., of which he became president.

In 1924, Nelson sold his company to the U.S. Foil Co., now Reynolds Metals Co., and spent most of his remaining work life traveling the country promoting Eskimo Pies and inventing new ways to store and deliver frozen confections. In 1955, he was awarded several patents for an ice cream novelty machine, the first high-speed continuous extrusion freezer that could make ice cream novelties. He retired in 1961 at age 68.

A Reynolds spokeswoman said Eskimo Pie took in about $61 million in sales last year, an amount that has doubled since 1987. “Americans love ice cream,” explained Lou Anne J. Nabhan, director of information for Reynolds, “and Eskimo Pie is a product that offers a very convenient way to consume ice cream anywhere, anytime.”

In recent years, Nelson--who settled in Orange County in 1976 and loved baseball--had slowed his pace somewhat in order to take care of his ailing wife of 65 years, Myrtle. She died last October at the age of 90. “He was very devoted to her,” Van Vleck said. “He told us right then that he wouldn’t be around much longer.”

Nelson maintained a close relationship to the company he founded right up until the end. Each year, Van Vleck said, company officials would send him a special birthday card, as well as call him several times between birthdays to see how he was doing. For his last birthday, she said, most of the company’s 130 employees posed in front of their building with a huge sign wishing Nelson happy birthday. And for years they would send him boxes of Eskimo Pies for every Christmas and birthday. “He even asked us to send some for his favorite nurses” in the nursing home, Van Vleck said.

According to his sister-in-law, Nelson enjoyed more success promoting Eskimo Pies with the public than he did at home. “I don’t think his wife cared much for ice cream,” Elisabeth Nelson said. “She was very conscious of her weight and didn’t eat it.”

Nelson is survived by several nieces and nephews. The funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m. at McCormick Mortuary in Laguna Hills. Interment will be at El Toro Cemetery.