Charles Walgreen, 100, Led Pharmacy
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Charles Walgreen, who helped build his father’s drugstore chain into America’s largest, died yesterday at his home in Northfield, Illinois. He was 100.
Walgreen became president of Walgreen Co. in 1939 following his father’s death, and held that office until 1963. He was chairman until 1976, when he retired to focus on sailing, a hobby that took him as far as Antarctica. During his tenure, sales grew more than 11-fold to $817 million from $72 million.
In the 1950s, Walgreen converted stores from clerk-assisted shopping to self-service. He reduced the weekly hours of pharmacists, reducing their weekly hours from about 66 in 1939 to a standard 40.
Born March 4, 1906, in Chicago, Walgreen grew up in the drugstore business. By age 11, he was carrying his mother’s homemade soup to its new lunch counter, part of the chain’s formula for success.
His father, Charles Walgreen Sr., called him “a good negotiator with a million-dollar smile.”
