John M. Mugar
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John M. Mugar (1914-2007) president and chairman of the Star Market chain of supermarkets in New England and prominent member of the Mugar family of Greater Boston, was born April 5, 1914, in Boston, son of Armenian immigrant, Martin Mugar and his wife. He died March 23, 2007, in Gloucester.
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[edit] Education
John Martin Mugar graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University in 1937. He served actively as a Trustee of Tufts from 1966-1989 and was a trustee emeritus for the rest of his life. He also served on the Board of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts.
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[edit] Early career
John Mugar was born Zaven Marderos DerMugarditchian in Boston.His ancestors had emigrated to America from Harpoot Turkey near the Euphrates River. His great-grandfather on his mother's side managed an orphanage in Armenia for missionaries of the American Congregational Church. His great-grandfather and twenty five members of his family were killed in the massacres of 1915.
John spent his early youth on Lenox St in Boston.It was an immigrant neighborhood.As he states in his memoir"Nobody had much money,and in those days there was no such thing as welfare,so people had to make it on their own."When he was seven his family moved to Chilton St in Cambridge.His father Martin Mugar and Martin's brothers managed a restaurant on the corner of Washington St and Columbus Ave in Boston,known as Mugar's cafe.
John attended the Cambridge Public Schools and graduated from Cambridge High and Latin.He was president and treasurer of the youth group at the First Congregational Church of Cambridge.At the age of thirteen he sold the Saturday Evening Post door to door and eventually managed a sales force of twenty boys,winning sales competitions that Curtis Publishing held in Boston.
During the Depression his father's restaurant closed and the family came on hard times,supported only by his sister Mary.John put his college plans on hold and took a full time job working for his cousin Stephen at Star Market.
In 1933 after a year at Star,John returned to school,first doing a post-grad year at Berkeley Prep,where he was valedictorian and then matriculating at Tufts University,where he majored in Economics.He graduated magna cum laude in 1937.
That same year he returned to Star,which now had three stores.He was appointed treasurer and reduced expenses by 30%.In 1940 he became vice-president.There were no guide books to running a supermarket,so they joined the Super Market Institute where they met other supermarket owners from whom they learned a lot.He realized that a business needs good managers and started to recruit and train qualified people.This became his hallmark.He continued to encourage and offer continuing education for his employees throughout his career.
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[edit] Naval service in WWII
At the age of 28 John Mugar enlisted in the Navy.In his own words he describes himself as"a balding grocer with flat feet and poor eyesight".Because of the eye sight, primarily, he failed his physical.Wanting to serve his country he persisted,passed his physical, and was inducted as an ensign.He was assigned to the naval base at Portsmouth NH in 1943, where he managed the commissary.It was at Portsmouth that he met his wife Helen Gienandt, who was an ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps.Both were eventually shipped out to the Pacific Front: Helen to New Guinea and John to Okinawa, where he was commissary officer of an amphibious unit,Acorn 44. His unit soon became known for the quality of their food and the cleanliness of the galleys.
Reminiscences of his chef George Thierry,who came to work at Star Market after the War, give a glimpse of his life in the Pacific.
1. Your rating as an officer jumped when you ordered the officers to the end of the line because this was an enlisted men's chow. 2. The submarine and air attacks. 3. Breaking down two days out of Hawaii, bobbing up and down in the Pacific until getting towed back to Hawaii. 4. Getting the reputation for the best chow on the island.4. Getting a "duck" to locate American freighters which may have surplus fresh produce. 5. Typhoon with winds up to 175 miles an hour.6. The Golden Gate bridge looked mighty good,when we finally made it home.
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[edit] Later Career
John Mugar took Star Market from a small chain of several stores to make of it a major New England supermarket brand of more than sixty stores. Although he was the cousin of the owner, he was never more than than a salaried employee himself. I think it was for this reason that he identified with his employees and the plight of the worker in general.He always felt being employed by an organization meant providing opportunities for self-improvement as well as a good salary and benefits.I remember an anecdote he related to me of a visit to Steinbergs,a supermarket chain in Montreal.He was making the rounds with an executive when he noticed an entrepreneurial employee behind the deli counter.My father commented to his host that the fellow looked like someone they should develop as he seemed to have enthusiasm for his job.The host said dismissively:"Oh he is French Canadian.He's going nowhere".My father was appalled by the bigotry. If there is any justice in the world, we can take some satisfaction that the Steinberg stores no longer exist and the French Canadians have taken autonomy in Quebec from their Anglophone overlords.
Another story he related to me that is revealing of his sympathy for society's exploited and oppressed, was about the day Martin Luther King was assassinated.My father was playing golf with some supermarket executive when the news of MLK's death made in out to the fairway.My father put down his club and said he had lost interest in continuing playing. Apparently,the other executives made some disparaging remarks about MLK and continued playing.Several years ago at a recognition dinner for Senator Brooke,the senator told Gabriel Mugar,John Mugar's grandson, that John was one of the first Boston businessmen to come out in support of him in his candidacy for Senator.My father had not forgotten how his father's restaurant in the South End was boycotted in the 30's after he had hosted a conference of Black ministers.The boycott put his father out of business.The loss of income during the depression place enormous hardships on the family that marked my father's view of the world. Unlike so many executives that move from job to job padding their pockets with golden parachutes, my father worked at Star from his youth to retirement and never lost sight of all those whose lives where part of Star Market as well.I remember taking my great aunt out shopping at Star in the 90's.She introduced me to an "old timer" who still worked in the deli and remembered my dad.He said that things were no longer the same as they were in the days when John Mugar was President.There was no longer the feeling of being part of a family.
My father often stated that once the necessities of life are taken care of, belonging was the next thing that was of importance to mankind.After that it was self-improvement. In everything he did and in his relations with people he wanted to show that he cared and that if he could help someone improve their lives, he would go out of his way to do it.Although he looked the part of an executive with his fedora and camel hair overcoat,he knew that his success depended on the success of those he employed.He was always part of a family.
[edit] Boston Globe Obituary
By Eileen McSweeney, Globe Correspondent | March 26, 2007
John Martin Mugar was part of a family credited with helping change the marketplace for grocery shoppers in New England by turning traditional stores in the 1970s into one-stop massive markets with bank outlets, florists, and books.
In some ways, however, this modernization was a throwback to the days of the Depression, when Mr. Mugar was working 90 hours a week for about 18 cents an hour with his cousin, Stephen Mugar. Then, too, the first order of business for the cousins was offering complete one-stop service.
"Why, if a customer wanted Bokar coffee and some thread, we went to the A&P for the coffee and to Woolworth's for that spool of thread," he told the Globe in 1980.
Stephen Mugar's small family store in Watertown became the first in the Star Market enterprise.
Mr. Mugar, former president of Star Market Co. and a longtime Tufts University trustee, died Friday of natural causes at Seacoast Rehabilitation Center in Gloucester . He was 92 and lived in Gloucester.
He formerly lived in Marco Island, Fla., and also had been a longtime resident of Belmont.
Born in Boston, Mr. Mugar was the son of Armenian immigrants.
As a young child, he sold the Saturday Evening Post magazine in Harvard Square and became the manager of 20 to 30 other boys, family members said.
He graduated from Tufts University in 1937, the beginning of a lifelong affiliation with the university. He would later serve as a Life Trustee and as a board member of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
During World War II, Mr. Mugar was a senior lieutenant in the Naval Reserve, based in Okinawa, Japan . He met his wife, Helen (Gienandt) , at Portsmouth (N.H.) Naval Base in 1943, while she was serving as a Navy nurse .
His cousin had offered Mr. Mugar a job at the store in the early 1930s.
By the 1960s, Star Market had expanded into the suburbs and had become a leader in the grocery industry in Greater Boston.
The chain was one of the first to offer such services as banking and florist operations, supplementing such traditional sections as deli and produce.
As president of the chain, Mr. Mugar had helped established a profit-sharing and retirement program for employees . When he retired about 25 years ago, Star Market had 61 stores in New England. The chain is now part of Shaw's company.
Looking back on his career, Mr. Mugar fondly recalled the personal service he could provide back when he was working with his cousin in Watertown.
"I miss the close contact with the customer and getting to know the family," he told the Globe in 1980. "I'd ask, 'How was the roast that I sold you last week?' That was important to me."
In addition to his work with Tufts, Mr. Mugar was a member of the President's Council at the University of Massachusetts and the Algonquin Club, president of the Minuteman Boy Scout Council , and founder of the Armenian Executive Club and the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown.
[edit] Marriage and family
John M. Mugar married Helen Gienandt whom he met in 1943 at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Naval Base, where he was a Navy lieutenant and she was a Navy nurse. They had three daughters and a son. John and Helen lived in Belmont for many years before retiring to Marco Island, Florida. Later they returned to Gloucester to live.
