Christian Nelson; Eskimo Pie Was His Invention

Christian K. Nelson, who 72 years ago combined chocolate and ice cream in his small Iowa confectionary parlor and came up with the Eskimo Pie bar, has died in Laguna Hills.

A spokeswoman for Reynolds Metals Co., previously the U.S. Foil Co., which bought Nelson out in 1924, said the Danish immigrant was 98 when he died Sunday.

Nelson was brought to the United States as an infant in 1893 and received a teacher’s certificate from the University of Nebraska in 1916. After Army service in World War I he settled in Onawa, Iowa, where he taught and ran a small ice cream shop on the side.

One day, he said years later, a boy came into the shop and agonized over a purchase of chocolate candy or ice cream. Nelson decided to try to combine the two and dipped a vanilla ice cream bar into a container of heated chocolate to come up with what he and confectioner Russell Stover were to call the Eskimo Pie. Nelson found that by adding coconut oil to the chocolate it would stick to the ice cream.

After the firm was sold he retained his affiliation with the Eskimo Pie Corp. and continued to invent new ways to store and deliver frozen confections.

A widower, he is survived by several nieces and nephews.