Leonard Lieberman, former chairman and chief executive officer of Supermarkets General Corporation, owner of the Pathmark supermarket chain, died at home in Hoboken on Jan. 2 at the age of 85.
His wife, Arlene Lieberman, said the cause was heart failure.
Following his departure from Supermarkets General, Mr. Lieberman became an influential advocate for cities, particularly Newark, and one of New Jersey’s most prominent civic leaders. Democratic and Republican governors appointed him to leadership roles. He was also a generous donor to arts and education organizations. Just last month a gallery at the Newark Museum was dedicated to him and his wife, Arlene.
Leonard Lieberman’s career took an early, unexpected turn. In 1963 he left the practice of law to become vice president and general counsel of Supermarkets Operating Company, a group of several stores that were a part of the ShopRite cooperative chain. Supermarkets Operating Company opened and acquired additional stores and in 1967, the group left the ShopRite chain under the ownership of Supermarkets General Corporation and named its stores Pathmark, which was to become one of the leading supermarkets retail chains in the Northeast. Lieberman became president of Supermarkets General Corporation in the early 1980s and in 1983 became chairman and chief executive officer.
Lieberman played a major role in steering Pathmark through several decades of innovation and growth, occasionally by acquiring existing businesses but principally via a strategy of building stores in new markets in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. By the mid-1980s, SGC had more than 50,000 employees. It then ranked among the top ten largest supermarket chains in the nation.
While at the helm of Pathmark, the firm took a bold step counter to the trend of supermarkets closing their stores in urban communities, which began following the civil disorders that swept the country in the 1960s. In 1977, Pathmark opened a new supermarket in a poor section of Brooklyn in partnership with the Bedford Stuyvesant Corporation. Before departing Pathmark, Lieberman laid the foundations for similar partnerships which eventually led to new stores in central areas of Manhattan and Newark.
In the late 1980s, Lieberman joined the board of Vestar, a portfolio management company. Jim Kelly, one of the founders of the firm recalled how Lieberman was a wise man and teacher and encouraged us to “make our partners the best they could be, and not wait for some idealized version of what you want them to be.” Kelly considered it critical advice for a young company.
Lieberman was born in 1929 in Elizabeth to Bessie and Joseph Lieberman, who immigrated to the United States from Ukraine in 1913. The family lived on very modest means.
His father worked as an egg candler for a poultry wholesaler. Leonard attended public schools, where he was a star. He went to Yale University and majored in history, graduating in 1950. In 1953, he earned a law degree from Columbia Law School. (He also completed a three-month advanced management program at the Harvard Business School in 1970.)
Lieberman was a strong civic leader who championed many political campaigns and stood up for important social issues. In 1970, for example, he raised money and worked for the campaign of Kenneth A. Gibson, who was to become the first African American mayor of Newark. He served as president of the board of trustees of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center from 1973 to 1978, a period during which the institution had undertaken several major building projects. In the 1980s, he was appointed by Governor Tom Kean chair a task force to seek improvements in public management. Until his passing, he continued as a trustee of the Fund for New Jersey, a private foundation focused on urban, social and environmental policies in the state.
Lieberman considered the development of the NJ Performing Arts Center as a critical venture to help revive the city, which, in his mind, was integral to the survival of the state. In a December 1999 publication of the arts center, he said: “The inner cities need attention from a number of directions, restoring both the downtown and people’s pride. I thought I was helping to solve the inner city problem.”
Raymond Chambers, a philanthropist who has been a key player in efforts to rebuild Newark said, “There is no doubt in my mind. We could not have built and operated the Performing Arts Center without Len’s strategic guidance and his extraordinary management skills.”
He also served on numerous state and regional planning bodies as well as on the boards of 15 nonprofit institutions. Former New Jersey Governor James Florio said, “Len was a very successful man. But he never forgot where he came from and never lost his concern for social justice.”
Lieberman leaves his wife Arlene Lieberman of 27 years and three daughters from a previous marriage; Betsy Lieberman and husband Richard Groomer; Nancy Lieberman and daughter Isabel Lieberman Hale; and Anne Lieberman and sons Ethan and Jonah Lieberman Flint. He also leaves two step children, Elyse Layton and husband Tom Lee, and Mitchell Layton and wife Michelle and daughters Erin and Kelly Layton.