Bill Samuels, Jr.
“Definately did NOT Screw Up the Whiskey”
Ironically, Bill Samuels, Jr. was born on National Bourbon Day (June 14th) of 1940. He is the only son of Maker’s Mark founders and bourbon legends Bill, Sr. and Margie Samuels. When he was assuming the helm at Maker’s upon his father’s retirement, the frank but foreboding words that his father left him was, “Don’t screw up the whisky." So when Junior took over as President of Maker’s Mark in 1976, he honored his father’s request, but, as sons are sometimes prone to do, he did it his way.
Bill grew up in Bardstown, Ky., the godson of bourbon legend Jim Beam, so his childhood included an education of bourbon from the inside out. As a teen, he learned salesmanship by driving Harland Sanders around in a 1946 Ford as the Colonel was first launching his fried chicken restaurants. Later, when he began to think about college, Bill Jr. decided to pursue a career in engineering, where he specialized in aeronautics, later helping to design both the Gemini and Polaris missiles. Then, it was on to law school, and the White House as an intern, before re-joining his father in the family business at Star Hill Farm back in Loretto.
A true entrepreneur but humble to the core, Bill attributes the success of Maker’s Mark to having some exceptionally smart parents, combined with some very good luck. Nonetheless, his contributions to the brand and the bourbon industry are especially notable. During his tenure as head of Maker’s Mark, Bill created the first-of-its-kind Ambassador program that allows the brand’s biggest fans to feel like part of the family. Then, just before his retirement, Bill Jr. made his (Maker’s) Mark on the family legacy with the 2010 introduction of Maker's 46, the company's first new brand in over 50 years (of which Bill has amusingly called ‘realizing the dream of a desperate old man about to retire with no legacy’).
The first bottle of Maker’s Mark was sold in 1958. Decades later, the distillery still rotates all barrels by hand and ages every batch to taste, not to time. These are choices that larger distilleries might find inefficient, yet at Maker’s, they continue to deliver consistency and guarantee quality. As a further testament to its craftsmanship, every bottle of Maker’s is still hand-dipped in its signature red wax.
The Samuels family line of bourbon distillers has now been perpetuated through eight generations of sons: Bill Jr. served as President of Maker’s Mark for 35 years until 2011, when his son Rob became the COO. Rob still serves in that capacity.
Now, Bill, at 85, is still in a perpetual state of semi-retirement. He has never been much of an idle body. As Maker’s Mark Chairman Emeritus, he now travels around the world, introducing Maker’s Mark to new drinkers and sharing the story of his remarkable life. He is also a real advocate for the central Kentucky community, having chaired the board of more than 25 different non-profit organizations during his career. For his efforts, he has been recognized as Kentucky’s Entrepreneur of the Year on three different occasions; he was also named Louisville’s 2004 Citizen of the Year. Bill Jr. was also honored by Ernst & Young as Kentucky’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement Entrepreneur and was inducted into the Kentucky Business Hall of Fame in 2006. Perhaps most important to him is that in 2001, Bill Samuels Jr. was inducted into the inaugural class of the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame alongside his father.
Resource: American Distilling Institute, 2025
Contributed by Anthony Archer, San Antonio, Texas
