The Associated Press reported that Burt Shavitz died of respiratory complications in Bangor, Maine, surrounded by friends and family. He lived in a cluttered house with no running water, while a converted turkey coop that once served as his house rested on the property.
“Burt was an enigma; my mentor and my muse. I am deeply saddened,” said partner, ex-lover former CEO Roxanne Quimby to The Associated Press in an email. They started the company together in the 1980s as a beekeeper and a passing single mother and back-to-the-lander.
Shavitz said he was forced out of the company in 1994 after having an affair with an employee. He sold his shares to Quimby in 1999 for $130,000, the Washington Post reported.
In 2007, Clorox bought the company for more than $900 million. Quimby gave Shavitz just $4 million of the cut, the Post reported, with 37 acres in an isolated part of Maine.
He would later tell the Associated Press: “What I have in this situation is no regret.”
When asked about his severance from the company, Shavitz told the documentary makers of Burt’s Buzz: “In the long run, I got land, and land is everything.”
In his final days, Shavitz spent his time watching wildlife.
“Burt was a complex man who sought a simple life in pace with the seasons of nature on his land,” the company said in a statement. “If there is one thing we will remember from Burt’s life, in our fast-paced, high-tech culture, it’s to never lose sight of our relationship with nature.”
This article was originally published on Business Insider. Copyright 2015.
