"It’s not money that’s important," said William Horlick ( c.1845-1936), "it’s saving lives." A sincere statement from one who died with a $17 million estate. For Horlick it really wasn’t the money, it was being able to help other people that was of value. That altruistic desire actually led to his discovery of the malted milk formula with which the Horlick name became synonymous. For years Horlick and his wife, Arabella Horlick (c.1845-1938), who was his cousin (her maiden name also being Horlick), labored to create a prepared food which could be added to milk to enrich it. The determined to create a food complete in itself and one that would keep in any climate. By boiling milk in a vacuum at 140 degrees, they were able to remove its water content. To the resulting powdered milk the added extracts of barley and wheat. They called it "malted milk."

Horlick and his brother, James, founded the Horlick Food Company in 1875. James oversaw a plant in New York and one in England, which supplied the product to Europe, Africa, and India. William managed the Horlick plant in Racine. It was a castle-like structure complete with a lagoon for swans - perhaps reminiscent of the Harlech-Horlick family castle in England. The plant employed some 350 workers, and Horlick’s own dairy herd supplied the milk. Despite their immense wealth, Arabella continued to churn her own butter. William kept his battered coronet and his saddle-making tools as reminders of his early years of impoverishment in England.

William Horlick died at his Northwester Avenue home in 1936. He was 90 years old. He had spend his money to give the community such substantial gifts as Memorial Hall, a maternity wing at St. Luke’s Hospital in memory of his daughter Alice, Island Park, Horlick Athletic Field, and land for the high school that was named in his honor. Horlick was knighted by the King of Norway for his help on polar expeditions. A mountain range in Antarctica was named for him by Admiral Richard E. Byrd who, like every polar explorer for twenty years, had survived on Horlick’s health food.

His three surviving children commissioned a family mausoleum from the Harrison Granite Company of New York, at a cost not to exceed $36,000. Had his monument been only a stone marker, it might have been inscribed with this thought of his: "It’s too bad many people think only of money. Too bad."

Submitted by Deborah Crowell