The owner of five ShopRite stores in New Jersey has died from the coronavirus, his family said on Wednesday.
Steve Ravitz, 73, battled the deadly bug for 13 days in the hospital, his son Jason wrote in a Facebook post in which he shared a photo of a makeshift memorial for his father outside of a ShopRite store in Cherry Hill, NJ.
“Under the current conditions, this is the best that we can do to collectively express our anguish and sorrow,” the younger Ravitz wrote.
The Ravitz family later issued the statement, “We are deeply saddened by the death of our beloved father and friend Steve Ravitz, the patriarch who guided our family business, Ravitz Family Markets, for 40 years.”
Steve Ravitz, who had retired as president of the Ravitz Family Markets in 2019, started the family business in 1968 after working in his father’s grocery business in Philadelphia.
He also headed up the Ravitz Family Foundation, which funded programs for needy children in South New Jersey, including Camden.
Another son, David, appeared as a contestant in the 2018 season of ABC’s “Bachelor in Paradise.”
Ravitz had five children and seven grandchildren, according to the company’s Web site. He was a director of Cooper Hospital Foundation, the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey and Crescent Memorial Park.
Ravitz passed the leadership of the family company to his sons Jason, Shawn and Brett, last year when he retired, the family said in a statement.