Alex Grass

Alexander Grass (August 3, 1927 – August 27, 2009) was an American businessman, lawyer, and philanthropist who founded Rite Aid, one of the United States' largest drugstore chains. His father, a businessman whom Grass described in 2002 as "relatively successful", died during the Great Depression when Grass was 9 years old in 1938, leaving the family with little income. Grass' family relocated from Scranton to Miami Beach, Florida in 1936 after his father's death. Grass worked a number of small jobs while living in Florida. He obtained a law degree from the University of Florida Law School in 1949 using the G.I. Bill. While working there, he took the bar exam and passed on his first try. His father-in-law had a wholesale food business, Louis Lehrman and Sons, with his brother-in-law Lewis Lehrman in 1951. The business sold coffee and sugar during World War II. In 1958, Grass went into the rack-jobbing business to supply health and beauty aids and non-food to grocery customers.

Rite Aid

Grass identified an opportunity in the retail sector, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling and lack of competing drugstores. He decided to open a store in downtown Scranton, which he called the Thrif D Discount Center, in 1962. The store would be the first of the chain which would become Rite Aid. The first store in Scranton saw early success. He expanded the business and opened other locations in Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton and Lancaster, as well as a second location in Scranton. He served as the head of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem board of governors, where he was awarded the National Scopus Award. They later divorced.