Calhoun Foods Founder Dies

Greg Calhoun, an Alabama businessman and onetime owner of local grocery store chain Calhoun Foods, has died at the age of 66, according to a report in the Montgomery Advertiser. He passed away Oct. 11 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Calhoun Foods, which began in 1984 and operated in west Montgomery, included as many as 15 locations before shuttering in 2015. Calhoun was the only African-American grocer in the city of Montgomery.

More recently, he founded Calhoun Enterprises and teamed up with comedian Steve Harvey on several business ventures, including the acquisition of a latex glove plant in 2015. The duo met with then President-Elect Donald Trump in January 2017 to discuss positive change in the inner cities.

Calhoun rose from humble beginnings to purchase the supermarket where he once bagged groceries, raising salaries at the store while cutting his own pay in half and working 16 hours a day. The loan he took out to buy the store was scheduled to be paid off over seven years, but he did it in three.

Survivors include Calhoun’s wife, Verlyn, and his children. At press time, funeral plans were still pending.