Bill Harmsen, a founder of the Jolly Rancher Candy Company, a philanthropist and a collector of Western art, died here on Wednesday. He was 89.
Mr. Harmsen and his wife, Dorothy, opened an ice cream shop in Golden, Colo., in 1949. The Harmsens made candy during the winter when ice cream sales were slow. They started with chocolates, but it was the cinnamon, watermelon, apple, cherry and lemon hard candies that propelled Jolly Rancher to regional and then international success.