Charles R Walgreen III

Charles R. Walgreen III Chairman Emeritus of Walgreen Co. (since July 1999). Chairman of the Board until July 1999 and Chief Executive Officer until January 1998. Mr. Walgreen III is the father of Kevin P. Walgreen, an executive officer of the Company, Charles R. Walgreen III led the drugstore chain that bears his family's name through a period of significant change, shedding many ancillary businesses and focusing on store growth and a top-of-the-line pharmacy operation. Walgreen, 80, died Monday September 26 2016 at his home in Lake Forest, according to the company. Born in Chicago, Walgreen was the grandson of Charles Walgreen Sr., who from a single store on the South Side in 1901 started what would become the nation's largest drugstore chain. Walgreen's father, Charles Walgreen Jr., became the company's president in 1939. Walgreen joined the family business in 1952 as a stock boy before receiving a degree in pharmacy from the University of Michigan in 1958. After college, Walgreen returned to Walgreens as a store pharmacist and several years later became the administrative assistant to the company's vice president of operations. After several more promotions, including overseeing various regions, Walgreen was named the company's president in 1969, CEO in 1971 and chairman in 1976. Over the next decade, the chain doubled the number of its stores to more than 1,200. Walgreen retired as chairman in 1999 and stepped down from the company's board in 2010. The Deerfield-based company was renamed Walgreens Boots Alliance after a merger with the European pharmacy chain Alliance Boots Holdings in 2014. In 2004, Walgreen donated $2 million to the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy to endow a professorship devoted to researching the socioeconomics of health care policies, A marriage to Betsy Walgreen ended in divorce. A son, Tad, died in 1996. Walgreen is survived by his wife, Kathleen; six sons, Charles, Kevin, Leslie, Chris, Tad and Carl; two daughters, Brooke and Jorie Grassie; a sister, Leslie Ann Walgreen Pratt; a brother, James; 19 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.