Norman Cohen, 85; built Lechmere Sales
Generations of Bostonians bought their first televisions, stereos, and washers from Norman D. Cohen and his brothers, who turned their father's small Cambridge tire store into discount giant Lechmere Sales.
Mr. Cohen, who rose from childhood poverty in Dorchester to operate the multimillion-dollar company, died Monday at his home in New York City from Merkel cell cancer. He was 85.
"The secret of our success was tonnage," Mr. Cohen told the Globe in 1997. "We had to sell lots and lots because our profit margin was so small. But you must emphasize that it was always the three brothers. We were a team, and we got along very well."
Mr. Cohen and his older brothers Maurice and Philip made Lechmere as well known for its promotions as for its merchandise. The store dominated the appliance trade in Boston from the 1950s into the 1970s.
They were salesmen by day, and delivered washers to customers by night.
The brothers priced everything to end with 88 cents as a reminder of the store's address at 88 First St. On President Washington's birthday every year, they sold thousands of cherry pies for 88 cents.
"People would drive from Maine to get a cherry pie for 88 cents," Mr. Cohen said in 1997, when Lechmere closed its doors following its 1994 sale to a second corporate giant, Montgomery Ward.
"In those days, it was a blessing that none of the three brothers had ever worked for anybody else, because we didn't know what couldn't be done, and so we went out and did it," Mr. Cohen said in the interview.
Mr. Cohen and his brothers were the sons of Russian immigrants. Their father, Abraham "Pop" Cohen, first opened Lechmere in 1913 as a harness shop.
The name came from the Lechmere Square section of Cambridge, an area developed by British loyalist Richard Lechmere.
As a boy, Mr. Cohen was "scrappy" and outgoing, said his childhood friend Dr. Edward Adelson of Washington, D.C.
"We were the poorest of the poor. We met at school and remained friends ever since. Norman was bigger than I, so he would protect me," Adelson said.
Mr. Cohen and Adelson banded together with about a dozen other youths to form the Hebrew Aces, a club whose members played basketball at Hecht House in Dorchester, now called Lena Park.
"We were Jewish in a neighborhood surrounded by Irish and Italians," Adelson said.
Mr. Cohen met his first wife, Shirlee (Blum), in the days when the Hebrew Aces hung out at Hecht House and first discovered girls.
Adelson was best man at his wedding. The couple had three sons and later divorced.
Mr. Cohen was always a skilled negotiator who reveled in the art of the deal, his friend said.
"He was wonderful in business. He would negotiate tough as nails, but he always said he had to leave his opponent with something," Adelson said.
Mr. Cohen's son Douglas of Lexington said his father was driven to succeed. "He knew what he wanted to do and went out and did it," he said.
In 1969, the Cohens sold Lechmere to Dayton Hudson Corp., which expanded to a chain of 33 stores and later sold to Montgomery Ward. Mr. Cohen left the company in the 1970s and moved to New York. He focused his energy on the Weizmann Institute of Science, a multidisciplinary research center in Rehovot, Israel.
When the Lechmere name disappeared in 1997, Mr. Cohen "was saddened, but he didn't look back. He tended to look forward," his son said.
Mr. Cohen made more than 60 trips to Israel during his life. A meeting with Israel's prime minister, Golda Meir, spurred his work with the Weizmann Institute, where he became president and served as chairman and international deputy chairman of the worldwide board of governors.
"She convinced him he should donate, and he just fell in love with it," said his wife, Judith (Younglieb).
Mr. Cohen and Judith were married 25 years and lived in Palm Beach and New York.
He loved playing golf and was a sculptor, she said.
"He really was quite special," Mrs. Cohen said. "He was a very unassuming man. He was very charming but understated. He didn't need to sit at the head table. He was more concerned about those at the back."
For his 80th birthday, Mr. Cohen gathered all of his children and grandchildren together for a party in Bermuda with their "Poppa."
He also attended a reunion two years ago of Dorchester's Hebrew Aces.
"He wouldn't miss it," Adelson said.
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Cohen leaves a brother, Philip of Newton; two other sons, Stuart of Marblehead and I. Scott of Framingham; 10 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
His brother and partner Maurice died in 1995 at age 80.
Services were held in New York on Wednesday. Burial will be today in Hebrew Volin cemetery in West Roxbury. A memorial is planned for 1:30 pm. Dec. 7 at Temple Isaiah in Lexington. 