Warren Alpert, whose Warren Equities Inc. is among the nation’s largest privately owned companies, died Saturday morning of a heart condition. He was 86.
An Army veteran of World War II, Mr. Alpert received the Purple Heart for injuries received at Omaha Beach in 1944. After his tour of duty, Mr. Alpert completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, where he went on to earn his MBA.
He began his own business with, he liked to recall, “$1,000 and a used car.” From its inception in 1950, the firm swiftly grew until it was ranked by Forbes magazine among the top 400 privately owned U.S. companies. Mr. Alpert was the sole owner.
“It was Mr. Alpert’s desire and plan that his companies continue to grow and prosper. We are sure that all of his employees and management will continue to fulfill this objective,” his nephew, Herb Kaplan, said in a statement. “… But his business success is only part of the Warren Alpert story and legacy.”
A well-known philanthropist, he used his fortune to support health care and biomedical research through the annual Alpert Prize and the The Warren Alpert Foundation, whose recent $100 million gift to what is now The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University was the school’s largest ever.
“Mr. Alpert’s philanthropy will enable the university to enhance medical education at Brown … [and] help educate generations of young physicians,” President Ruth J. Simmons said in a statement at www.brown.edu. “… We extend our condolences to the friends and relatives of Mr. Alpert; to his nephew, Herbert Kaplan; to the staff of The Warren Alpert Foundation; and to the employees and business associates of Warren Equities Inc.”
A memorial service is to be held at noon today in the Stanetsky Memorial Chapel in Brookline, Mass., according to the Boston Globe. Burial will be in Pride of Boston Cemetery, in Woburn, Mass.
