Jack Eckerd was the founder of a chain of Drugstores.
Jack Eckerd was an American businessman and the second generation owner of a drugstore chain.
He graduated from the Boeing School of Aeronautics and the Culver Military Academy.He was a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and received three Air Medals.He worked in both state and national governments for 30 years.The first residential treatment program for troubled boys was founded in Florida in 1968.
He transformed his family's retail drugstore business into one of the leading self-service drugstore chains in the United States.Forbes magazine estimated his personal finances to be $150 million in 1975.
After his marriage to Ruth Eckerd, he had seven children, two from a previous marriage, three adopted and two of his own.He died of pneumonia in 2004.[3]
Jack's father founded the Eckerd chain in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1898.Jack Eckerd started the expansion of the chain by buying three stores in Florida in 1952.When Jack Eckerd sold his shares in 1986, there were about 1,500 stores.
The chain was sold to J.C. Penney, who built the number of stores to 2,600.Stores in ten states from Florida west to Arizona became CVS; the stores from Georgia north to New York continued to be run by Jean Coutu's US arm.
More than a century of the Eckerd name in drug retailing came to an end in July of 2007.
Eckerd was appointed administrator of the General Services Administration in 1975.Jack ran GSA cleaner than a hound's tooth according to the President.Eckerd was named to serve on the U.S.O.There is a board of governors.He was named to the private sector panel on government cost control by Ronald Reagan.A private sector board that operates all Florida Prison industries was created in 1981 by Governor Bob Graham.
A third candidate, State Senator L. A., entered the Republican gubernatorial primary in 1970."Skip" Bafalis entered the primary as well.The Republican debacle in the fall campaign would be caused by Kirk being re-elected.The Miami Herald endorsed Eckerd as an efficient campaigner with the ability to bring people together.ckerd has a common touch, dedication to high principle, and organizing genius.[4]
The Republican nominee for the Senate in 1970, William C. Cramer, was trying to preserve party unity at the same time as he was at odds with Kirk.Cramer did not take a public position after voting in the primary.Kirk received 172,888 primary ballots, but Bafalis's 48,378 votes were enough to force a runoff with Eckerd, who received 137,731.Kirk won the second round, 199,943 to 152,327, after getting Bafalis's endorsement.[5]
Cramer said that he avoided involvement in primaries outside of his own race because of the fratricidal primary.Kirk accused Cramer of being "notorious for his ability to change the scope of the truth."He has an ego problem.Kirk denounced Eckerd for having previously contributed to Democratic candidates, for allegedly running down a Cuban fisherman in a yacht race, and for spending lavishly from his personal fortune in the 1970 primary campaign.Kirk was defeated by the Democrat Reubin Askew in the election.