Harold Toppel*

Harold Toppel grew up in Franklin, New Jersey, where he lived with his Russian Jewish immigrant parents above their small grocery store. During his school years, he and his two brothers worked in the store after school, on weekends, and during the summers. But the grocery business held no interest for young Toppel, who wanted to pursue a career as a mechanical engineer. He attended the University of Delaware with that in mind, but World War II interrupted his plan.

After two years in General George Patton's Third Army in Europe, Toppel enrolled in the University of Illinois, where he turned his attention to marketing. He graduated in 1948.

After two years as a salesman for Lever Brothers, Toppel took his first business risk and joined two friends to form National Grocery Company. They opened a store in New Jersey, which Toppel managed. Four years and three supermarkets later, Toppel sold his share of the company and set out for Puerto Rico to start his own business. He wanted to fulfill the need for better food distribution on the island.

In 1955, Toppel opened the first Pueblo supermarket in San Juan's Puerto Nuevo district. A year later, he opened a second Pueblo store, and the year after that, a third store. In 1963, Pueblo spread to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Several years later, Pueblo acquired a bakery in Puerto Rico, followed by the eight-store Great Eastern chain and the 65-store Hills-Korvette chains in the New York area, and then two radio stations and a wholesale food company.

In 1983, Pueblo developed super warehouse stores called Xtra Super Food Centers. Nearly three times as big as a regular supermarket, Xtra stores each took in $40 million a year. Under Toppel's management, the corporation comprised 34 Pueblo supermarkets in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, six Xtra Super Food Centers in Puerto Rico, and three Xtras in Florida.

Toppel continued to be active with Pueblo until he retired in 1992 and remained on Pueblo's board until 1993, when Venezuela's Grupo Cisneros acquired his company for $426.5 million, the largest takeover in Puerto Rican history.

Toppel was active in Toppel Partners, an investment firm that he owned with his wife and four children and that dealt in real estate development, rental apartment ownership, stocks and bonds. Toppel also belonged to the World Presidents Organization.