Businessman and philanthropist Leon Levine, 85, died Wednesday, according to the Leon Levine Foundation. He was the founder of Family Dollar and one of the most prolific philanthropists in Charlotte’s history.
Levine founded the first Family Dollar Store on Charlotte’s Central Avenue in 1959 with a $6,000 investment.
He quickly expanded the franchise across the Southeast, selling low-cost goods in many low-income neighborhoods and shopping centers.
Family Dollar grew to be a Fortune 500 company and was sold in 2014 to Dollar Tree for $8.4 billion.
In 1980, he founded the Leon Levine Foundation with a mission to invest in health care, education, human services and Jewish values.
His philanthropy was instrumental in the creation of institutions across Charlotte, including the Levine Children’s Hospital and the Levine Cancer Institute at Carolinas Medical Center.
His contributions also helped fund Central Piedmont Community College’s Levine Campus, the Levine Museum of the New South, the Levine Jewish Community Center at Shalom Park and the Levine Scholars Program at UNC Charlotte.
In a statement, the Foundation for the Carolinas’ president and CEO, Laura Smith, said “whenever a critical community need arose, Mr. Levine was among the first to respond,” and said Levine was a “philanthropic icon.”
Eugene Woods, CEO of Advocate Health, of which Atrium Health is a part, said in a statement that Levine’s death was a “profound loss for the Atrium Health family and beyond,” and that his investments “shaped the way we deliver care at Atrium Health, especially in pediatric and cancer care.”
The health care system said Levine was the largest individual donor to the Atrium Health Foundation.
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