Alex Grass, founder of Rite Aid chain

HARRISBURG - Alex Grass, 82, who founded Rite Aid Corp. and built it into one of the nation's largest drugstore chains, has died.

Mr. Grass' daughter Elizabeth Weese said he died here late Thursday after a 10-year battle with lung cancer.

Mr. Grass was also a philanthropist who gave to civic, health, and educational organizations in the Harrisburg area.

He was born in Scranton and was educated as a lawyer, but his business career took off when he opened a health and beauty-aids store, ThrifD Discount Center, in Scranton in 1962; that was the first of what became the Rite Aid chain. Mr. Grass stepped down as chairman and chief executive in 1995.

His son Martin wrested control of the company that year in a boardroom coup and embarked on a costly expansion that pushed the chain deep into debt. Martin Grass was ousted in 1999 and is serving a prison sentence for conspiracy stemming from an overstatement of Rite Aid's earnings in the late 1990s. The company said the overstatement amounted to $500 million.

Rite Aid operates 4,800 drugstores in 31 states and has annual revenue of about $26 billion.

Alex Grass was a major Republican fund-raiser and gave a total of $80,000 to former Gov. Tom Ridge's campaigns. A former chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, Mr. Grass underwrote numerous civic projects, including the United Jewish Community Campus in Harrisburg.

Mr. Grass was married to Lois Lehrman, but they divorced in 1972. In addition to Martin and Elizabeth, they had two other children, Linda and Roger. Mr. Grass' second wife, Louise, died in 2007.