Alex Grass, 82, founder of Rite Aid Corp
Matthew Kruk
Alex Grass 1927 -- 2009
'Beacon of generosity'
Friday, August 28, 2009
BY MARY KLAUS
Alex Grass, the founder of Rite Aid Corp. and a giant in local, national
and international philanthropy, died Thursday night at his home. He was
82.
Grass had battled lung cancer for 10 years.
The Scranton-born lawyer entered the business world in the early 1950s
after marrying into Harrisburg's Lehrman family. Grass was best known as
the founder of Rite Aid, a drugstore chain he built into a regional
empire by the mid-1990s when his son, Martin L. Grass, took over
operations and shunted him aside.
Besides his association with Rite Aid, Grass was involved in many
philanthropic ventures centering on his Jewish faith. He also
contributed to many local civic, health and educational organizations.
"Alex Grass was larger than life," said Rabbi Peter Kessler of Temple
Ohev Sholom, of which Grass was a member. "He was a great friend to many
in his community and throughout the world. Our congregation was blessed
to have him as a member, leader and beacon of generosity."
In a 1999 interview, Grass recalled, "We didn't have much when I was
growing up. As I became successful, it became important for me to give
something back to the community."
He said his father had been a "relatively successful" businessman who
died during the Depression, leaving his family with little money.
"I learned early on how important it was to be economically sound and to
be in a position where I could be independent," he said. The Grass
family moved from Scranton to Florida after his father's death. There,
he worked in various odd jobs, including drugstores.
In 1949, he graduated from the University of Florida Law School. While
in Florida, he met Lois Lehrman. They married six months later.
Grass, who was interested in tax law, moved to Pennsylvania to pursue
opportunities with the Internal Revenue Service and other government
agencies. In 1953, he joined the Lehrman family's wholesale
food-supplies business.
Grass was a shrewd, hardworking businessman who identified trends and
capitalized on them. No trend was more significant than a U.S. Supreme
Court ruling in the early 1960s that said manufacturers could not
dictate minimum prices for retailers.
That decision gave birth to what has become the discount retailing
industry. Grass seized his role in that fledgling retail scene when he
opened a Thrif D Discount Center in 1962 in Scranton.
The 17-foot-wide and 75-foot-deep store, specializing in health and
beauty aids, was an "immediate success," he recalled in 1995. He quickly
opened other stores in Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton and Lancaster and a second
store in Scranton.
By 1968, Grass had expanded the business to about 50 stores when he took
the now-named Rite Aid public in a stock offering at $25 a share. The
offering gave the company sufficient money to build more stores and make
acquisitions. In 1969, it bought the Daw Drug Co. of Rochester, N.Y.,
doubling in size and entering the pharmacy business.
His company continued to grow by opening new stores and making
acquisitions. The stock split repeatedly over the years as it developed
a miniculture of well-heeled investors within the Harrisburg community.
"I didn't think this business would be anywhere near this successful,"
he said during a 1995 interview with The Patriot-News as he departed
from his day-to-day role at Rite Aid. "But apparently, our method of
operation was superior to a lot of the competition."
By the time Grass left Rite Aid as its chairman and CEO in March 1995,
it was the nation's largest drugstore chain in terms of store numbers
and the second largest based on revenue.
"To me, that's the barometer that measures my skills," Grass said at the
time, "my ability to manage as compared to anyone else in the drugstore
industry."
Grass was a longtime director with the National Association of Chain
Drug Stores, a trade organization that frequently honored him as its
retailer of the year. He remained a director of Rite Aid until 2001, but
by then his role was low-key.
After his departure from Rite Aid, Grass pursued other business
interests, including the Fleer/SkyBox sports trading card company that
he and another son, Roger, bought in 1999. That business was closed and
sold off in 2005.
He was the chairman and CEO of Oak Hall Industries L.P., a privately
owned supplier of academic regalia. He also was involved with the
Sera-Tec Biologicals blood plasma business, a onetime Rite Aid
subsidiary.
Grass donated time and money to various causes, including local,
national and international Jewish organizations.
He and his second wife, Louise, who preceded him in death, helped pay
for additions at Harrisburg's Jewish Community Center. The United Jewish
Community's campus is named after them.
He was a past chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the board of
governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received an
honorary doctorate in 2000. He also was a chairman of the United Jewish
Appeal and a past president of the Israel Education Fund. He was a
member of the Jewish Home of Greater Harrisburg's board of directors and
had been a vice president of Temple Ohev Shalom.
Grass was involved with PinnacleHealth System and was a member of the
Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Right to Work
Foundation. He was an instrumental force and an honorary chairman of the
fundraising campaign for the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts,
which opened in Harrisburg in September 1999. He donated $500,000 toward
the Whitaker project.
His legacy includes a $14.5 million medical building at PinnacleHealth's
Harrisburg Hospital named for him. The building houses a fully automated
laboratory robotic system, a blood donor center and private physician
offices.
He gave $1.5 million to Harrisburg Area Community College to establish
the Alex Grass School of Business Leadership to encourage the
development of entrepreneurs and business leaders.
He donated $1 million to the University of Florida to establish a chair
for the school's Center for Jewish Studies. He also contributed $500,000
for a new law building at the campus.
A drug research center at Hebrew University's School of Pharmacy is
named after him. He also endowed a professorship of oncology at the
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
At times, his many contributions locally and globally were overshadowed
by his son Martin's ignominious reign at Rite Aid. Martin L. Grass was
ousted from the East Pennsboro Twp.-based company in October 1999 and is
serving a prison sentence for a conviction on conspiracy charges
stemming from an overstatement of earnings during the late 1990s.
In 2002, the senior Grass said of his life: "By and large, I'm
satisfied, I'm pleased with what I've achieved. I wish some of the
situations did not take place. But a lot of what's happened that I am
unhappy with has just been outside of my control."
Grass was "a really good man," said Kessler, the rabbi. "I felt very
close to him. He had a humble start in life. But as he made a success of
himself, he taught others how to make a success of themselves, not just
financially but as people. He wanted to make the world a better place
and to inspire others to do the same."
Melvin Wall of Susquehanna Twp. called Grass "my best friend for over 55
years."
"Alex was very, very bright and a very determined person," Wall said.
"He gave so much to the Jewish community and general community but was
humble about his gifts. He was like a member of our family."
Jay Steinberg, the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg's executive
director and CEO, called Grass "a giant in our community, a tremendous
man."
"He was welcoming to me when I came to the community 15 months ago. He
will be missed. He leaves a gigantic hole to fill," Steinberg said.
Kessler said Grass' funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday in Temple
Ohev Sholom. Former staff writer Tom Dochat contributed to this report.
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