Friday, August 28, 2009

RITE-AID FOUNDER DIED

HARRISBURG | - Rite Aid Corp. founder Alex Grass has died at 82.

Grass died Thursday after a 10-year battle with lung cancer.

He helped build Rite Aid into one of the nation's largest drugstore chains and was a philanthropist who gave to civic, health and educational organizations in the Harrisburg area.

Grass was educated as a lawyer, but his business career took off when he opened a health and beauty aids store in Scranton in 1962.

He stepped down as chairman and chief executive in 1995.

His son, Martin Grass, later ran the Camp Hill-based company but was ousted in 1999. He is in prison for conspiracy stemming from an overstatement of Rite Aid's earnings in the late 1990s.

A funeral is planned Sunday in Harrisburg.

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