Yankee Candle founder Mike Kittredge hospitalized after suffering stroke

SOUTH DEERFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Michael Kittredge, the western Massachusetts man who founded the Yankee Candle Company, is in a Boston hospital after suffering a stroke.

The 60 year-old Holyoke native sold the company a few years ago. He founded Yankee Candle in South Hadley in 1969, when he was just sixteen years old. Since then, it has grown into a worldwide enterprise, and one of the largest employers in Franklin County.

On Wednesday, longtime customers who had never even met Mike Kittredge spoke admiringly of the candle company founder.

“Must be rewarded somehow. Somebody with what he has accomplished, It's just outstanding,” Yankee Candle customer Ed Stowe said.

Mike's son Michael Kittredge, III is keeping the public advised of his father's condition on the website of Kringle Candle, the Bernardston-based company that the younger Kittredge owns.