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TAMPA — Jim Hearn, founder of Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs, died from a sudden illness Tuesday, according to a news release. He was 71.
A Palm Harbor resident since 1982, Hearn grew the company from a small hamburger joint he purchased in 1973 in Taylor, Michigan, to the 11th-largest pizza company in the nation. Hungry Howie's has more than 200 Florida locations and 550 locations in the U.S., according to the company.
Barry Devine, director of marketing for Hungry Howie's, says Hearn's death came unexpectedly. “He had just beaten cancer with his usual unassuming manner and great sense of humor,” Devine says in the release. “This illness came out of nowhere.”
Hearn was raised in Dearborn, Mich., just outside Detroit, but moved to Clearwater in 1982, which was a lifetime dream of his, the release says. By 1986, he with others began a food distribution company with warehouses in Michigan and Florida to serve the company's network of franchises.
“What may surprise people about Jim,” Devine says in the release, “is that if a north Pinellas resident has ordered pizza from Hungry Howie's in the past 30 years, there is a very good chance that Jim delivered one of those orders.” Devine says until the end, Hearn could be found making pizzas and helping out with deliveries at one of the Hungry Howie's locations in north Pinellas.
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