Whitey's Ice Cream is an ice cream parlor chain based in Moline, Illinois. This ice cream has been an icon of the Illinois and Iowa Quad Cities since it was founded in 1933.
History
Chester Lindgren opened the first store on the corner of 16th Street and 23rd Avenue in Moline, Illinois. He was nicknamed "Whitey" due to his white-blonde colored hair. In 1935 Lindgren hired 15-year-old Bob Tunberg, who worked for him throughout high school and several years after. In 1953 Lindgren sold the store to Tunberg.
Tunberg and his wife, Norma, made ice cream during the day, and sold their product in the store at night. In 1979 the business was expanded when a second store opened in Moline, Illinois.[1] After the success of this second store, as well as the addition of several more Illinois stores, the first Iowa store was opened in 1984 in Bettendorf, Iowa.
Present
Whitey's Ice Cream is currently owned by Bob Tunberg's sons, Jeff and Jon Tunberg. They work side by side as co-owners of the company, and the title, president, remains open in honor of their late father, “The Quad-Cities Favorite Ice Cream Man”, who died in 1991. They currently operate nine locations in the Iowa and Illinois Quad Cities.