Lowell Hawthorne, Golden Krust founder and CEO, dead at 57

NEW YORK -- Lowell Hawthorne, the founder and CEO of Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill, has died in New York City. He was 57.

The city's medical examiner's said Hawthorne shot himself in the head at his Bronx factory on Saturday.

Hawthorne started the successful Caribbean fast food chain in 1989 by selling Jamaican beef patties, jerk chicken and breads. He built the business into a national franchise with more than 120 restaurants in nine states.

The New York Daily News, citing court records, reported that Hawthorne had amassed a large amount of tax debt and was being sued by a former employee for lost wages.

Hawthorne once appeared in an episode of CBS' "Undercover Boss." At the time of his death his company was planning on building a new $37 million headquarters in Rockland County.

"He was a nice boss, a wonderful guy," longtime employee Everald Woods told the Daily News. "He's the kind of guy you want to work for for that long. He takes care of his employees."

In a Twitter message on Saturday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness offered his condolences to Hawthorn's family and employees.

Queens City Councilman I. Daneek Miller (D-27th) also issued a statement, CBS New York reported.

"We are at a loss to conceive the notion that Lowell Hawthorne, the baker's son from the Jamaican hilltop community of Border, whose culinary gifts and can-do spirit gave birth to a surging restaurant and food retail enterprise that employs several hundred people in locations across America, is now gone to us," Miller wrote. "Since its creation, Golden Krust has always been more than a franchise. It is both an expression of cultural pride and devotion to community. I wish to extend my condolences to the Hawthorne Family for the sudden and untimely passing of their beloved Lowell. We will not soon forget the many contributions of the man who took the taste of the Caribbean to the world."

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• New York City
• Suicide