For generations of Penn Staters, certain traditions define a trip to Happy Valley.
There’s the walk through campus on football Saturdays. The photos at the Lion Shrine. The return to favorite classrooms and familiar landmarks. And somewhere along the way, for most Penn Staters, there’s a stop at Berkey Creamery.
For Jim Brown, helping preserve that tradition, and the people he’s met along the way, became the most meaningful part of his career.
Brown retired Monday, June 8, after more than 20 years as Berkey Creamery’s manager of sales and marketing, concluding a tenure that helped transform the operation from a beloved campus ice cream shop into a multifaceted business with national reach.
“What I’ve learned over the years is that the Creamery is a lot of things to a lot of people and a lot of demographics,” Brown said during an interview on his final day. “During the week, the Creamery is a meeting place for students, faculty and staff and visitors at Penn State. Then on the weekend, it’s an event location…People come here because maybe their parents came here and their grandparents came here. It’s a generational place. Keeping that proud tradition going became really important.”
A Lock Haven University graduate with a degree in business management, he served as an officer in the U.S. Army during the Gulf War before transitioning into retail. He later joined Snyder Valley Farms Dairy, where he spent seven years overseeing dairy operations and distribution.
In 2005, he accepted an opportunity at Penn State that seemed to combine every stage of his career thus far.
“My background was from the leadership perspective of the military to running sales and marketing for a retail operation to actually running a dairy,” Brown said. “I knew about the dairy business, so it kind of matched up for me to come to the Creamery because it has a little bit of everything.”
At the time, the Creamery was still housed inside Borland Laboratory. One of Brown’s first responsibilities involved helping oversee the transition down the road into the Food Science Building, where the Creamery operates today.
The move dramatically expanded the retail footprint, storage capacity and operational capabilities. Even so, the Creamery’s popularity outpaced expectations.
“We figured we had enough storage space and were really set for the next 10 years,” Brown said. “Within the first five years, we ran out of storage space. We literally were challenged by becoming more and more popular.
“If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve had more dry storage space, more cooler space, a bigger store and more seating. But you’ve got to be happy about outgrowing your space. That shows the real fortitude of the people who have worked so hard to make the creamery what it is today.”
Under Brown’s leadership, Berkey Creamery expanded well beyond its traditional role.
Its e-commerce business evolved from what Brown described as a single webpage directing customers to call for shipments into a nationwide operation capable of sending Penn State products across the country. Partnerships with Housing and Food Services, athletics and other university departments and student organizations also strengthened.
But despite the growth, Brown said one interaction early in his tenure fundamentally changed the way he thought about the Creamery.
He recalled meeting a Penn State alumni couple from California attending the university’s Ice Cream Short Course. Before they left, he asked what inspired them to make the trip.
“They said, ‘Actually, the Creamery brought us here,” Brown said. “They had met at Penn State, and this was their anniversary. They wanted to come back to see the Creamery and enjoy the ambiance of Penn State. I said, ‘You mean to tell me that after all these years, one of the things you remember most about Penn State was the Creamery and the ice cream’ And they said yes.
“That really got me to thinking and understand that the Creamery is a lot more than just the store and a lot more than just ice cream. It’s a traditional stop that everybody has to come to, and it’s special to people’s hearts.”
That realization shaped the philosophy Brown carried throughout the remainder of his career. To him, customers weren’t simply buying ice cream. Rather, they were buying an experience.
“The entire atmosphere is the experience,” Brown said. “It’s about walking through the doors, seeing nostalgic things from the Creamery, being an ice cream parlor, being a meeting place and seeing people happy and enjoying themselves. It’s not just the product that you came here to get. It’s everything that you experienced while you were here.”
He saw that philosophy come to life in moments both big and small.
Prospective students ended campus tours at the Creamery. Alumni brought children and grandchildren back to campus to share a favorite memory. Friends gathered after class. Families celebrated milestones.
Even home football games on fall Saturdays carried their own sense of unity.
“The Creamery is one of the only locations on Penn State that, during a big rival football game, everybody in line is happy with each other,” Brown said. “You can have Penn State fans standing next to fans of another team, and nobody’s arguing because they’re all here for ice cream.
“We wanted people to know that no matter who they were, they were going to have a good time. They’re going to remember the time they had here. It’s not just about the ice cream. It’s about everything they experienced here.”
As Brown prepared to retire, he found himself reflecting less on business achievements and more on the relationships he built over two decades.
In recent months, former coworkers, customers and members of the Penn State community reached out with cards, texts and emails to congratulate him and thank him for his work.
“The amount of people that have thanked me over the last couple months makes me feel really good that I was able to make a difference,” Brown said. “If I can leave that thought process with everybody else, and we continue to share that from generation to generation of people who work here, that relationship is what makes us successful.”
The Creamery itself, he noted, has been in operation, and since evolving, for more than a century and a half.
“The Creamery is 161 years old, and I only have a very, very small part of it,” Brown said. “It was great before me, and it’ll be great after me.”
What he’ll miss most, however, came without hesitation.
“The people,” Brown said. “I’ll miss the people I’ve worked with. I’ll miss the people from groups and organizations across the university. I’ll miss the customers. I’ll miss the vendors. I’ll miss everybody I’ve come into contact with that helped build the Creamery and the Creamery helped build them…You can’t say every person is perfect, but I can say every experience is perfect. That’s going to be the hardest part for me to walk away from.”
Retirement now brings a new role Brown is eager to embrace. He plans to spend more time with his wife, twin 3-year-old granddaughters and 1-year-old grandson.
“The passion that I’ve always had for the Creamery, and that’s grown over the years, is now going to be filtered into the passion I’m going to have and show for my grandkids,” Brown said. “Whatever you do, do it with a real, in-depth, true, genuine passion, and you can never go wrong.”
Before leaving the Creamery for the final time, Brown returned to the lesson that guided him through more than 20 years serving scoops, students and generations of Penn Staters.
“We’ve always said there’s one ‘F’ word the Creamery should use,” he said. “And that’s fun. Make the experience fun. Make people happy.”
