PHILANTHROPIST, GROCERY CHAIN FOUNDER L.V. EBERHARD DIES

Friends of supermarket king L.V. EBERHARD say there wasn't much that could keep him away from work or the golf course—two of the great passions in his life.

But on Sunday, six months after stepping down from EBERHARD FOODS after 70 years in the grocery business, the 89-year-old Mr. Eberhard died at Sherbrook Nursing Center following a lengthy illness.

He left behind a chain of 14 stores in West Michigan, a fraction of the 41 stores he operated at the peak of his business.

The stubborn, sometimes controversial Mr. Eberhard, while known for butting heads with union representatives, executives and even his own family, also left a trail of philanthropic commitment, including sizable donations to Grand Valley State University and John Ball Zoo.

"He was about the most optimistic man I ever knew," said Meijer Inc. Executive Committee Chairman Fred Meijer. "I am going to miss that old rooster."

In the late 1930's, early in their respective careers, Meijer said Mr. Eberhard asked him if he wanted to come to work with him. Although he never accepted the offer, Meijer said they remained friends—though competitors to the end.

"We were very much head-to-head competitors." Meijer said. "But that didn't bother us when we got together."

In the waning years of his business career, Mr. Eberhard left a deeper imprint on the community around him, highlighted by a $1 million pledge in 1980 to further expansion of the John Ball Zoo, one of his favorite charities.

In 1954, Mr. Eberhard paved the way for the children's zoo, giving $18,000 to that cause.

Mr. Eberhard topped that in 1988 with a $1.25 million gift to GVSU, including $1 million for the downtown Grand Rapids facility named after him, the L.V. Eberhard Center. The additional $250,000 was used to establish a scholarship program to provide up to $1000 for as many as 20 GVSU students.

GVSU President Arend Lubbers said he recalls talking to Mr. Eberhard about fund raising efforts for a downtown campus. A week later Mr. Eberhard called back.

"I've been in this area for years and known him for years, so nothing about L.V. ever surprised me." Lubbers said. "I think everyone in the West Michigan region can understand how important that facility is for the education of the people in this region."

Lubbers also knew Mr. Eberhard on the golf course, one of his favorite haunts away from work. He was an active sponsor of the Grand Rapids Charity Golf Classic, which evolved into the Greater Grand Rapids Open, and was thrilled to tee it up with such golfing notables as Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Jack Nicklaus.

While less than a great shotmaker, Lubbers said, Mr. Eberhard made up for it with his will to win.

"He really enjoyed the contest. Even though he had a high handicap, he could every once in a while come in with a sensational shot and win the money," Lubbers said.

Mr. Eberhard was born Aug. 27, 1902, and he was 12 when his father died, leaving a family to operate GRAND RAPIDS HOME DAIRY CO.

He was fond of telling the tale of how he and his mother started a grocery story in 1918—when he was 16—with nothing more than "$25 and a sack of sugar." The first store was at 1142 Wealthy St. SE.

After four years in the business, Mr. Eberhard decided to return to high school, get his diploma and go on to law school. He got his high school diploma in 1922, but stayed only one semester at Grand Rapids Junior College.

"That ended my college career and my aspirations of becoming a lawyer," Mr. Eberhard reported in a GVSU publication released at the opening of the Eberhard Center.

Mr. Eberhard took over the business in 1929 and built his first supermarket 10 years later, at 1551 Wealthy St. SE. The first store in town with automatic self-opening doors, it set the standard for others to follow.

He was fascinated with devices that set his store apart, introducing in 1947 a checkout machine using a rotating checkout system. He also introduced grocery baskets that enabled a parents to carry babies in a basket while they shopped.

Mr. Eberhard was also a leader in the use of grocery cooperatives, helping to found GRAND RAPIDS WHOLESALE GROCERY CO., now SPARTAN STORES, INC., as well as several other cooperatives.

At his peak, Mr. Eberhard commanded 41 stores and wielded a powerful position as the unchallenged man in charge.

Over time, however, union problems, management conflicts and declining sales began to erode the strength of his chain.

In 1983, Mr. Eberhard fired several directors of the company after they tried to remove him from the day-to-day operations of the company. Mr. Eberhard out-maneuvered the dissident board members and was upheld in court, but the dispute was merely a prelude for battles to follow.

That same year, his daughter, BETTY TARDY FORREST, sued her father after she was fired from the company after 27 years.

In 1985, Mr. Eberhard fired his grandson, DAVID EBERHARD, who had been promoted to vice president the year before. Explaining the firing, Mr. Eberhard said simply: "He thinks differently and has different ideas than I do. And I have no further comments, period."

David Eberhard at the time said his grandfather's management style did not allow him to delegate responsibility.

"He is interested in every bad check that comes through and reprimands store managers for every bad check," he said at the time.

In October of that year, Mr. Eberhard's negotiations with Spartan Stores to sell off his remaining 22 stores fell through when company employees and their union filed suit in U.S. District Court, alleging the sale violated the rights of workers who owned stock in the company through a stock ownership plan.

That suit was settled in 1986, but it left bitter feelings on each side.

Mr. Eberhard continued to wield singular control over the company even though he had sold a majority of the company's stock to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. He served as the stock plan's sole administrator and trustee.

In April 1990, lawyers for United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 951 asked the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate the stock ownership plan and Mr. Eberhard's role as its only administrator. Union officials charged that Mr. Eberhard inflated the value of the stock to benefit himself when he authorized the sale of employer stock-owned buildings in exchange for stock.

Longtime friend Matthew Perrin said Mr. Eberhard was not an easy man to get to know.

"He was a two-sided type person," said Perrin, owner of Foodtown supermarket, 425 Fuller Ave. NE. "He was very tough at times, but that was because he always demanded the best out of everybody. But if you ever needed a helping hand he would be the first one."

Perrin said he bought his first grocery store from Mr. Eberhard in 1967.

"I bought it on the golf course," Perrin said. "I didn't know it until the following Monday when he told everybody I bought it."

Mr. Eberhard is survived by his wife, RUTH; his son, DONALD; and his daughters, BETTY FORREST and JOAN GALLAGHER. He was married twice previously.

The family will receive visitors Tuesday at Metcalf & Jonkhoff Funeral Service at 4291 Cascade Road SE from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday. Services will be Wednesday at noon at Park Congregational Church at 10 E. Park Place.

In lieu of tributes, the family suggests donations be made to either the L.V. Eberhard Scholarship Fund at GVSU, Junior Achievement or the Eberhard Adventure World, Children's Exhibit Area, at John Ball Zoo.

THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS, Grand Rapids, Mich., Mon., 25 Nov. 1991, Pg. A1, Cols. 1-5 and Pg. A4, Cols. 1-3

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According to an Ancestry.com record, L.V. Eberhard was the son of CLARENCE J. EBERHARD (1879-1914) and PEARL BUFFHAM.

An IGI Individual Record (Batch No. M019754) states that CLARENCE J. EBERHARD married PEARL BUFFHAM, 2 July 1901, in Burr Oak, St. Joseph Co., Michigan


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