Warren Alpert (December 2, 1920 – March 3, 2007) was an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. Born to poor immigrant parents, he served in U.S. military intelligence during World War II. His privately held businesses distributed gasoline, tobacco and food, and operated a chain of convenience stores and gas stations in the
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...
. He gave away much of his fortune to support medical research at universities and hospitals, donating hundreds of millions of dollars.
Early life and education
Alpert was born in
Chelsea, Massachusetts
Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. As of the 2020 census, Chelsea had a population of 40,787. With a total area of just 2.46 s ...
on December 2, 1920. His parents, Goodman Alpert and Tina Horowitz Alpert, were immigrants from
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
, and his father worked as a peddler selling
dry goods
Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and forme ...
. He was the youngest of five children. At age 13, Alpert started selling towels and sheets out of the trunk of his father's car.
He graduated from
Chelsea High School and sold hats after school. He worked seven days a week while earning his bachelor's degree from
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
, graduating in 1942.
He served in military intelligence during World War II, was wounded on
Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach was one of five beach landing sectors designated for the amphibious assault component of operation Overlord during the Second World War. On June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded German-occupied France with the Normandy landings. "Omaha" r ...
during the
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
invasion of France, and received a
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, w ...
. After the war, he attended
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
on the
GI Bill
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...
, and earned a
Master of Business Administration
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
in 1947.
[
]
Business career
Alpert worked for Standard Oil of California for several years before returning to the east coast to start his own business in 1950. He had a used car, $1000 in savings and a $9000 loan from an older brother. Initially, he owned and operated a dry goods store, and then he bought and operated some gas stations. He was soon able to pay back the loan his brother had given him.[ His business, Warren Equities Inc. was headquartered in ]Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
. Gradually, he expanded into distribution of gasoline, food and tobacco in the wholesale and retail markets, and he established a chain of gas stations and convenience stores called Xtra Mart, operating in New England, New York and Pennsylvania. According to industry analysts, most Xtra Marts "are located in close-knit rural communities where each store serves as a sort of town center." The Xtra Mart chain grew to over 250 locations under his leadership. His privately held businesses had no long term debt[ and had annual sales of $2 billion at the time of his death.][
Alpert stepped down from active management of his businesses in 1993, turning over control to his nephew, Herbert Kaplan.]
Philanthropy
In 1974, Alpert donated money to Boston University to convert a parking lot to a tree lined park with a grassy berm to cut down on traffic noise. The park is named the Warren Alpert Mall, but is commonly called the BU Beach.[ He also donated money to the Harvard Business School, the ]Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...
and the Sutton Place Synagogue in Manhattan.
In 1986, he established the Warren Alpert Foundation with the goal of improving the health of the public.[
In 1993, Alpert donated $20 million to the ]Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
. At that time, he said, "I want cures, cures for cancer, Alzheimer's and AIDS", adding that he was donating to Harvard because he thought they were most likely to discover the cures.[ In 2000, he donated $15 million to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.][
In 2007, five weeks before his death, Alpert donated $100 million to the medical school at ]Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
in Providence, the city where his business was headquartered.
Personal life
Alpert was never married. He was an outgoing man of simple tastes who did not own a yacht or a private plane or employ a chauffeur. According to his nephew Herbert Kaplan, "he had a tremendous zeal for life" and would wear a red tie to a black tie event, enjoying the attention.[ In his later years, Alpert turned management of his businesses over to Kaplan, and moved to the ]Ritz Tower
The Ritz Tower is a luxury residential building at 465 Park Avenue on the corner of East 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It was built from 1925 to 1926 as an apartment hotel and was designed by Emery Roth an ...
in Manhattan.[
Alpert died at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan on March 3, 2007. He was buried in ]Woburn, Massachusetts
Woburn ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,876 at the 2020 census. Woburn is located north of Boston. Woburn uses Massachusetts' mayor-council form of governme ...
.[
]
Legacy
The Warren Alpert Medical School
The Warren Alpert Medical School (formerly known as Brown Medical School, previously known as Brown University School of Medicine) is the medical school of Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island. Originally established in 1811, ...
at Brown University is named after him. His foundation, in cooperation with Harvard, operates the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize The Warren Alpert Foundation Prize is awarded annually to scientist(s) whose scientific achievements have led to the prevention, cure or treatment of human diseases or disorders, and/or whose research constitutes a seminal scientific finding that ho ...
, which awards $500,000 to teams of outstanding medical researchers annually.
References
External links
Warren Alpert Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alpert, Warren
American businesspeople
Harvard Business School alumni
Boston University alumni
People from Chelsea, Massachusetts
American military personnel of World War II
1920 births
2007 deaths
20th-century American philanthropists