Alex was one of my best friends since high school days in Miami Beach when I was 13 and he was a little older. It seemed we both worked hard all the time, had fun together and did all the things high school kids did. He worked at a neighborhood drug store and got an early lesson about how drug stores were ripped off. Later, we were with him in Harrisburg when the first two Rite Aids were founded. he was planning for the future around his pool with his brother-in-law who he took into the business after college days.
As years went by, we visited often, usually aboard his yacht(s) in cruises around the Chesepeake, New England and the Caribbean.
As a Gator alum, he was generous with the University of Florida and it was our pleasure to host him several times through the years, sometimes with Louise and once with grandchildren.
Sitting around a pool in Palm Beach in 1999 we established a partenership in an apartment development; then another. In good times and bad, our relationship flourished. I knew Alex longer than any living person except his brother Bob.
He will be missed. Barbara and I extend our condolences to family and friends. Sleep in peace, dear friend.
Phil
Posted by: Phil Emmer - Gainesville, FL Aug 30, 2009
John
Russell
