This undated photo courtesy of Marsha Veit shows her father Irvine Robbins, co-founder of the Baskin-Robbins chain that famously offered 31 flavors of ice cream. (Courtesy of Robbins Family/Associated Press)

Irvine Robbins, a co-founder of the Baskin-Robbins franchise that popularized novel ice cream flavours, died Monday at age 90 in California.

The Winnipeg-born Robbins passed away after a lengthy illness at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Robbins moved with his family to Tacoma, Wash., at age six. As a youngster, he worked at his father's dairy business, making ice cream. Later, after leaving the army in 1945, he opened his own shop called Snowbird in Glendale, Calif.

"He was a young man, and he didn't know any other business," his younger sister Elka Weiner said. "He wasn't an attorney; he wasn't a doctor; he didn't want to sell shoes. He knew ice cream, and he decided to go into the ice cream business. And it was a happy, happy, happy life for him. He loved his career."

Robbins later teamed up with his brother-in-law Burton Baskin, who operated a separate ice cream shop named Burton's in Pasadena. The two partners merged their stores, opened a factory and began to franchise their stores.

Chain offered more than 1,000 flavours

The stores touted their 31 flavours though in fact, they have offered more than 1,000 over the company's history, including Jamoca, Daiquiri Ice, Pink Bubblegum and Here Comes the Fudge.

"Baskin and Robbins were a marvelous team, and they just had the magic formula," Weiner said. "And [Robbins] found it to be fun."

Robbins enthusiastically dreamed up new concoctions and flavours, Weiner recalled, bringing them to market to capture pivotal cultural moments.

"When the Brooklyn Dodgers … came to Los Angeles, in the middle of the night he thought of an ice cream: Baseball Nut. And within five days, it was on the market; it was in the stores. He was wonderful, just wonderful."

United Fruit Co. bought the chain in 1967 though Robbins worked for the company until his retirement in the 1970s. Dunkin' Brands Inc. now owns the chain, operating more than 5,800 franchises around the globe.

A private family service will be held Friday. Robbins is survived by his wife, Irma, and his children, Marsha Veit and Erin and John Robbins

With files from the Associated Press