Stew Leonard, Sr., founder of the Stew Leonard’s grocery chain, known for its fresh food offerings and singing animatronics, died Wednesday after a brief illness.
A graduate of the University of Connecticut’s School of Agriculture, Leonard first worked for his family’s dairy business at Clover Farms Dairy in Norwalk, Connecticut. The facility was equipped with a pasteurizing and bottling plant, and fresh milk was delivered daily by trucks that had plastic cows on the front that “mooed” for the neighborhood children.
In the late 1960s, Leonard realized the milk delivery business was going extinct. This gave him the idea to build a retail dairy store where children could watch milk being bottled while parents did their shopping in a farmer’s market atmosphere.
In December 1969, Stew Leonard’s opened a 17,000-square-foot store carrying just eight items, in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Today, Stew Leonard’s has become a $600 million family-owned and operated business with seven locations in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut and more than 2,500 employees. The company is run by Leonard’s son, Stew Leonard, Jr. with help from his siblings Tom Leonard, Beth Leonard Hollis, and Jill Leonard Tavello. Five of his grandchildren have also joined the business. It has been named “World’s Largest Dairy store” by Ripley’s Believe It or Not and earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest dollar sales per square foot of selling space.
Stew Leonard, Sr. is survived by his wife of 70 years, Marianne Guthman Leonard, their four children, 13 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.
The memorial service and burial will be private. Donations in Stew’s memory may be made to the Stew Leonard III Water Safety Foundation, a 501C3 charity that helps to fund swimming lessons for children in need, in honor of his grandson who drowned in 1989.
Related: 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Alain Sinturel, Les Trois Petits Cochons; 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Donato Cinelli, Universal Marketing
Image: Stew Leonard's