Alex Grass, 82; founded Rite Aid pharmacy chain

Mr. Grass, 82, died Thursday night at his Harrisburg home after a decade-long battle with the disease, his daughter, Elizabeth Grass Weese of Baltimore, said yesterday.

Mr. Grass was a philanthropist who contributed to civic, health, and educational organizations.

“Alex Grass was larger than life,’’ said Rabbi Peter Kessler of Harrisburg’s Temple Ohev Sholom, where Mr. Grass was a member and where a funeral is scheduled for tomorrow. “He was a great friend to many.’’

Born in Scranton, Pa., and educated as a lawyer, Mr. Grass’s business career took off after he bought a small health and beauty aids store, the Thrif D Discount Center, in Scranton in 1962. He had expanded the business to 50 stores and renamed it by the time it went public in a $25-a-share stock offering in 1968.

By the time he stepped down as the company’s chairman and chief executive officer in 1995, Rite Aid was the nation’s largest drugstore chain in terms of total stores and number two in revenue.

His son, Martin Grass, ran the company for several years but was ousted in 1999 after he was implicated in an accounting scandal that nearly destroyed the company. He is serving a federal prison term stemming from an overstatement of Rite Aid’s earnings in the late 1990s.

The elder Mr. Grass’s legacy includes a $14.5 million medical building named after him at PinnacleHealth’s Harrisburg Hospital and $1.5 million to establish the Alex Grass School of Business Leadership at Harrisburg Area Community College.