Albert Boscov

Mr. Boscov, 87, the chairman of the nation's largest family-owned department-store chain, died at his home in Reading late Friday night Frebuary 10 2017 of pancreatic cancer. Just nine days earlier, he had told his employees that he was dying. Earlier Friday, he managed to post a loving farewell on the Boscov's Facebook page. The company announced his death Friday night, describing him as a dynamic retailer and philanthropist who believed in hard work and honesty, and in treating his employees like family, and his customers fairly and with respect. In 1950, Mr. Boscov took over the company from his father, Solomon, a Russian immigrant who founded Boscov's in 1914. The company took a fall and filed for bankruptcy in 2008 after Mr. Boscov retired. Within months, he was able to rescue the company by cobbling together family money and loans, like PREIT's. The youngest of four children, graduated from Reading High School and Drexel University, where he earned a business degree and made money with his U-Eat-Em delivery of hero sandwiches. In a 2009 interview with the Inquirer, he told of learning a valuable life lesson while working one of his first jobs for his father at the family's neighborhood store: killing flies. Albert Boscov is survived by Eunice, his wife of 57 years; three daughters, Ruth Aichenbaum (husband Michael), Ellen Boscov (husband Todd Taylor), and Meg Boscov (husband Randall Brown); and five grandchildren.