Lewis E. Lehrman, who helped transform his family's grocery business into Rite Aid and later mounted a surprisingly strong gubernatorial campaign in New York, has died at 87. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History announced his death in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he had lived with Parkinson's disease for years.

Lehrman made his fortune as president of Rite Aid from 1969 to 1977, overseeing expansion from 69 to 648 stores and sales growth from $47 million to $455 million. His brother-in-law Alex Grass had transformed the small discount chain into one of the East Coast's largest drug retailers. In 2023, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid opioid-related lawsuits.

Using over a tenth of his $60 million fortune, Lehrman challenged Democratic Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1982, losing by just 180,000 votes. The Reagan Republican campaigned on a 10% flat tax and returning to the gold standard, while Cuomo criticized his Pennsylvania roots and wealth. Though he never ran for office again, Lehrman formed Citizens for America to promote Reagan's economic policies and later co-founded the Gilder Lehrman Institute, which revitalized New York's historical society.