Ice Cream and Me

Author: Steve Herrell

Publisher: Not Too Shabby Publishing

Date: November 11, 2021

Stephen Ray Herrell, better known as Steve Herrell, was born in Washington, D.C. in 1944, now 78 years old. In 1967 he graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology. He moved to Boston and earned a certificate at Suffolk University to teach secondary English in Massachusetts. After a brief time at Westwood High School, he opened the original Steve’s Ice Cream in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1973, where he made and sold a creamy, low-air-content and richly-flavored ice cream, and introduced to the world the concept of the ice cream “mixin,” whereby he broke name brand candies and confections into pieces and mixed them into single scoops of ice cream upon a customer’s order. This brought him a phenomenal success, and he was praised by The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Newsweek Magazine, Time Magazine, The New Yorker Magazine, Gourmet Magazine, The Washington Post, USA Today, and many other national publications.

He sold Steve’s Ice Cream in 1977 and moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he opened the original Herrell’s Ice Cream in 1980, based on the same concepts as Steve’s. At one point, Herrell’s grew to six stores, several in the Boston area.

He married Judy Udes Herrell in 1985, and they raised one daughter, Jessye Herrell. Judy and Steve are divorced, but remain the best of friends. Steve retired in 2014, and still lives in Northampton, pursuing and enjoying a number of interests. In 2021, he self-published his book titled Ice Cream and Me. Previously in 2014, he wrote and published an illustrated booklet titled How NOT to be Late! Herrell’s Ice Cream itself continues to thrive to this day under the capable reins of Judy Herrell in its original location in Thorne’s Market in Northampton, now for over 41 years.