Albert Lerner; salesman became supermarket official

Albert Lerner, 96, of Center City, a door-to-door salesman who became a supermarket chain vice president, died of complications from an infection Friday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

In the 1950s, Mr. Lerner worked two jobs, his son Alan said. During the week, he sold insurance for Metropolitan Life, and on weekends, he sold socks and hosiery at the Quakertown Farmers & Flea Market.

By 1960, Mr. Lerner was managing the Quakertown market, as well as markets in Bristol and Woodbury.

He decided to start his own business, Renel's, which leased space in stores in South Philadelphia and Kensington to merchants selling dry goods.

Mr. Lerner became vice president for nonfood operations for Penn Fruit in the mid-1960s. He had bagged groceries at a Penn Fruit supermarket as a teenager and made contacts there, his son said.

When Penn Fruit closed in 1978, Mr. Lerner returned to the Quakertown market as a consultant and remained there until 1992. In recent years when he visited the market, merchants still buttonholed him for advice, his son said.

Growing up in Philadelphia's Logan section, he worked as a paperboy. At Simon Gratz High School, from which he graduated, he was on the football, track, wrestling and debating teams, and the chess club.

Mr. Lerner then traveled through New York state selling drugstore notions. During World War II, he worked for Westinghouse in Delaware County, making steel plates for submarines.

Known for his generosity, he contributed to community programs and often made loans to friends, relatives and acquaintances, his son said.

Mr. Lerner was past president of B'nai Yitzchok Synagogue, now Beth Emeth-B'nai Yitzchok, in Northeast Philadelphia. He persuaded the synagogue men's club to sponsor basketball and softball teams for teenagers, and when the players needed a coach, he stepped up, his son said.

He later volunteered at the B'nai Brith Home for the Aged in Philadelphia and read to the blind at the Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Center City.

He also volunteered as a juror in training sessions for students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where his son is a professor. Until two years ago, he audited classes in political science and history at Penn.

Mr. Lerner was an enthusiastic card player, golfer, bowler and Phillies fan, and "loved the ponies," his son said. He enjoyed theater, opera and jazz.

He was affectionately called "Zaida" - Yiddish for grandfather - by his extended family.

Mr. Lerner's wife of 55 years, Esther Freifelder Lerner, died in 1993. In addition to his son, he is survived by sons Benjamin, a judge in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia, and Carl, a retail manager; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A service was Sunday at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks Memorial Chapel. Burial was in Mount Jacob Cemetery, Glenolden.