Old man Boscov.
You have to be from a certain part of the country to know who this was -- although I was surprised to see that his obituary made it into the local southern Florida paper -- but whenever I see a Boscov's department store, that means I'm getting super close to home.
And Boscov's is *old-school* -- family owned "destination" shopping for small towns in PA and the surrounding area. The one in my hometown of Lebanon was the *first* one that the family built outside of Reading (in the same year I was born, no less) and I can remember it being the anchor of the mall -- back in the days when kids walked around a mall for something to do on the weekends. When it got the mirror ceilings put in ... I knew our town had *made* it (even though it was probably mostly about loss prevention and not style) ... and it was so swanky that it had an auditorium on a second level! Talk about fancy (well, fancy for small town country living).
The company still lives on (and boy I hope it does for a long time to come) -- as does that store back home -- and so does the legacy of his commitment to the community ... but as for Big Al ... he will be missed.
RIP ALBERT BOSCOV:
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/02/albert_boscov_dies_at_age_87.html
A TOUCHING REMEMBRANCE:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/jobs/A-reporter-remembers-Al-Boscov.html
THE COMPANY HISTORY:
http://careers.boscovs.com/boscovs-history.html
