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12 December 21 • 2017 jn life would unwind." CAREER PATH Applebaum decided to follow his older brother, Leonard, and become a pharmacist. "I was thinking at first of going into law, but my parents convinced me that I could always do law after I finished pharmacy," he said in his oral history. "Pharmacy was a more guaranteed profession where you could make a guaranteed income and you could get a job. "It was a five-year class. I started in 1955 and graduated in 1960. I worked three years for an independent drug store, Merrill Drug at Puritan and Greenfield, for Sam Perlstein, a very nice man, a very smart man. Then I opened Civic Drugs [in 1963], which was at Michigan and Greenfield." From then on, he continued opening stores. In 1974, all the stores were renamed Arbor Drugs. From 1974-1986, he went public with 50 stores under the Arbor Drugs Inc. umbrella. The growing drugstore chain was known for its exceptional quality and outstanding employees, many of whom would eventual- ly take stock in the company as a reflection of their confidence and pride in the busi- ness. Arbor was named by Drug Store News as "Regional Chain of the Year" multiple times, and Applebaum was acknowledged as a "CEO of the Year" by Financial World magazine. When Applebaum sold the chain in March 1998 to CVS Corp. for $1.48 billion, he had 208 stores. "I loved what I did. I loved being involved," he said in the oral history. "I chose all the Arbor locations; I signed every one of the leases. At the end, we had 9,000 employees. I never had a layoff … We kept growing and we built up a wonderful organization. "It's almost a classic story of rags to riches, so to speak," Applebaum said. "It's a good Horatio Alger story — somebody who started with one drug store and ended up with a monster company. CVS wanted des- perately to come into Michigan and, really, I controlled Michigan at that time with a 50 percent market share, and the only way they could bust in was to buy somebody like me. "It was a very exciting time; I had a won- derful ride, but I'm glad I sold it at that time. As it turned out, it was a very smart time to sell it." PHILANTHROPY & LEADERSHIP Following the sale, Applebaum was able to focus more time on philanthropy in the Jewish and general communities, much of it focused on healthcare, education, the arts and giving back to the Jewish commu- nity that had given him so much. Applebaum said it best himself: "Philanthropy is part and parcel of life. First you take care of your family, then your community. Then you help the nation and the world. This is more than an obligation. It is a privilege." Beneficiaries of Eugene and Marcia Applebaum's decades-long legacy of sup- port have included WSU, University of Michigan and its entrepreneurial pro- grams, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Opera Theatre, Beaumont Health, the Mayo Clinic and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Tamarack Camps and many more. They made a $5 million gift to his alma mater, Wayne State University. The dona- tion helped fund construction of the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences building, which opened in 2002. "I enjoyed going to Wayne; it was an important place for an education for people who couldn't afford a lot of things, but they gave you a great education in the city of Detroit, and I think it is still a major jewel in Detroit," he said in his oral history. "When the opportunity came, when they were looking to get a better pharmacy col- lege, I became part of it through President jews d in the continued from page 10 TOP: Fisher Meeting, 1999: Eugene Applebaum, David Hermelin and Max Fisher. BOTTOM LEFT-RIGHT: Applebaum, 1987. Applebaumn received Federation's Butzel Award in 2013; he is with his wife, Marcia, and daughters, Pamela and Lisa. Applebaum, 2008. PHOTOS COURTESY LEONARD N. SIMONS JEWISH COMMUNITY ARCHIVES continued on page 14