Congratulations to Safeway’s customers and employees who have achieved a spectacular milestone. By donating a total of $11,010,953 to the 2010 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, the extended Safeway family has raised more than $50 million dollars for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Safeway executive vice president Larree Renda presented MDA National Goodwill Ambassador Abbey Umali with the check during the last hour of the almost 22 hour telethon in Las Vegas.
MDA CEO, president and telethon executive producer Jerry Weinberg said Safeway’s ongoing commitment to MDA has enabled the association to enhance funding for its worldwide research programs.
This is the eighth year that Safeway has been an MDA national sponsor, raising money through donations at the checkout stands and a cause marketing campaign called “Aisles of Smiles.”
The food industry of the Mid-Atlantic and nationally was saddened by the loss of two very fine people last month, Bob Burris of Burris Retail Logistics, and John Kluge of Kluge, Finkelstein and Company/ Metromedia.
Bob Burris, president and CEO of Burris, passed away on September 19 of cancer. Bob had been diagnosed with the disease in June 2009. We first met Bob in 1978, the year Food World was bought by Best-Met Publishing. At that time Bob was forming a committee to set-up a frozen food organization to help promote frozen foods to the consumer and to the trade. It eventually became known as the Baltimore-Washington Frozen Food Association. Bob served as the first president and was very instrumental in getting support for the group from retailers, wholesalers and brokers. The organization became of the best in the country.
Bob was also active in other food organizations and cared deeply for the food industry and all the people who worked in it. He will be missed in the food industry not only in the Mid-Atlantic but nationally.
Bob is survived by his wife of 42 years, Susan Roland Burris; his mother, Lillian Marshall Burris of Milford; a son and daughter-in-law, Connan R. and Amy Burris of Lewes; two daughters and sons-in-law, Robin and Darren Shelburne of Turnersville, NJ; and Megan S. and Dr. Kahlib Fischer of Lynchburg, VA.; two brothers and sisters-in-law, John and Cathy Burris of Wilmington and Howard and Debbie Burris of Milford;a sister and brother- in-law, Lillian and Bob Hoopman of Kiawah Island, SC; and eight grandchildren. He will be missed.
John Kluge was one of the founding partners of Kluge, Finkelstein & Co. – David Finkelstein was the other – which became one of the largest and most respected food brokerage companies in the United States. Although John never forgot the food industry and would always refer to it in speeches and gatherings, he went on to become one of America’s “Titans of Industry.” It could be said if you ate it, watched it on TV or at a movie theater or purchased it for your home, John Kluge owned it at one time or another. John’s ideas and influence have touched the lives of most of the people living today in one way or another.
He owned movie companies, beverage companies, lawn mower companies, medical research companies and on, and on, and on. You name it, one way or another John Kluge’s imprint was on it. John Kluge came to America with his mother when he was eight years old. He always had a job even while attending public schools. Through hard work and a teacher who befriended him, he won a scholarship to Columbia University. Along the way he learned to play poker and was very good at it.
In future years he repaid Columbia many, many times with generous donations, the last a donation of $400 million plus his winter mansion in Palm Beach, FL.
He was one of the richest men in America according to Forbes Magazine and for a couple of years, he was number one on the list of America’s richest people.
Kluge’s generosity was not limited to Columbia University. He donated millions to hospitals, schools and many, many other charities. He was a very generous person and a very caring person. One story told about a British boy named Craig Shergold, who was suffering from what was thought to be a fatal brain tumor, is that somehow Kluge found out about the boy who could not afford the medical care it would take to remove the tumor. Kluge knew a neurosurgeon, Dr. Neal Kassell, who was working with a then-experimental device called a gamma knife. Thanks to Kluge’s generosity, the boy was able to come to Virginia and Dr. Kassell removed the tumor and saved the boy’s life.
Throughout his entire working life, John Kluge never lost touch with his food background. When his partner, David Finkelstein had a heart attack, Kluge who was by then well established in business and on Wall Street, came to Columbia, MD and took over the helm at Kluge, Finkelstein and ran the company until David was able to get back to work.
The billionaire whose TV stations became the Fox network and whose money has benefited millions of people in the United States, at the time of his death was, according to Forbes, the 35th richest American.
It was a pleasure and an experience to have known John Kluge and an experience I will never forget.
Sympathy is also extended to the family of Gordon L. Kennard Sr. who passed away last month. Gordon was known as “the old grocery guy” and he loved being called that.
He spent years with Campbell’s and later was employed with the Baltimore Orioles. He is survived by his sons Gordon L. Kennard Jr. and his wife, Linda, Davis S. Kennard and his wife, Joanne, and daughter Jill Holtschneider and her husband Wayne and seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Contributions in his memory may be made to the Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital, 7501 Osler Drive, Towson, MD 21204.
Here’s an interesting little tidbit I’d like to share with Food World readers. While I’m very familiar with the food brokers in the United States, I never gave much thought to food brokers in other countries other than when at the FMI and we would run into some from an exotic country. This summer while vacationing on Cape Cod, I got talking to a very nice lady, Jean Kuhn, who lives in our condominium complex year round. One day she asked what I did, and I told her I’m with a food trade newspaper. Thinking she would not have any idea of what a food trade newspaper was, I started to tell her about retailers and food brokers. She told me that she knew all about the food industry. It turns out that her father, Archie McNicol and her great uncle James McCurrach, started a food brokerage in Glasgow, Scotland in 1898 and that the company, McCurrach & Co. is still around and is probably one of the largest food brokers in Europe. Over the years McCurrach & Co. has represented companies like Chase and Sanborn Coffee, Campbell’s, Royal Baking Powder, Nestle, Pepsico, Unilever and other large food manufacturers.
The managing director of McCurrach & Co. today is David Bremner and the chief executive officer is Jean Kuhn’s nephew, Neil McNicol. Her brother, Archie McNicol is also still employed with the company. So when in Scotland, Ireland or England and you want visit a food broker, visit McCurrach & Co.
Mark your calendar for Wednesday, October 27, 2010 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. as the Food Institute partners with the NDP Group and PLMA (Private Label Manufacturers Association) to bring you an up-to-the-minute webinar on private label. This webinar will delve into the world of private label and explore perceptions, usage patterns and intentions as it navigates marketers and manufacturers alike through the complexities of this increasingly popular market. For more information contact The Food Institute at 201-791-5570.
Birthday wishes go out this month to: Policy Solution’s Barry Scher; Best-Met Publishing’s CFO, William Speakman; Andy Metzger, son of Best-Met’s Jeff and Audrie Metzger; Shaw’s Supermarkets Carl Jablonski, (retired); Bell Sales’ Paul Bell; Children Cancer Foundation’s Shirley Howard, her 86th; and marketing consultant Ron Fish. Anniversary wishes go out to Safeway’s Roger and Phyllis Herding, their 43rd; Food World’s Lou and Mimi Rosenthal, their 62nd; Maryland Department of Transportation’s Richard and Caryn Scher, their 14th; Academy of Food Marketing, St. Joseph’s University’s (retired) Charles and Pat Mallowe, their 37th.
You too can have your birthday and/or anniversary date published in this column by e-mailing your names(s) and dates to [email protected].