Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 17, 1994 TAG: 9403170184
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MAG POFF STAFF WRITER Note: Below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Arthur Taubman, a Roanoke civic leader and self-educated businessman who founded Advance Stores Inc., died Tuesday night in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 92.
Born July 15, 1901, in Astoria, N.Y., Taubman, like many young people of his day, was forced to begin supporting himself at age 13 with only a sixth-grade education. He survived on $5 a week he earned at his first job as a stock boy in a New York department store.
Taubman served in the Navy in World War I, and afterward went into business with his brothers in Pittsburgh. By 1929, they had created a chain of auto parts stores that stretched from Washington to Boston.
But the Great Depression took a heavy toll on their business. Seeking another venture, Taubman learned of three unsuccessful auto parts stores - named Advance Stores - for sale in Roanoke and Lynchburg. Moving to Roanoke in 1932, Taubman pawned his wife's engagement ring and his own Masonic ring to make the down payment on the stores.
Taubman turned the company around immediately; Advance Stores says it's never had a money-losing year.
As a private company, Advance Stores does not report its financial results. But Automotive Marketing magazine estimated its 1992 sales at $320 million, 10th largest in the nation.
A store in Winston-Salem, N.C., became the start of the multistate Advance Auto Parts chain.
He opened at least one store every year except during World War II, and his company was one of the first nationally to give employees fringe benefits. The chain now has 372 stores.
Taubman moved from president to chairman in 1969 and retired to Boca Raton in 1973. He stepped down to vice chairman in 1985.
His life also was marked by his attention to charitable and humanitarian causes.
After Nazi Germany overran most of Europe in World War II, Jewish refugees trying to escape to the United States required a relative in America willing to sign an affidavit promising financial support.
Taubman signed about 500 such affidavits, indicating that each applicant was a first cousin. Questioned by government investigators about the number of his relatives, Taubman replied that any Jew whose life was endangered was his first cousin.
An enthusiastic Zionist, Taubman led a group of Jewish businessmen nationwide in raising $1.5 million in 1951 to build a tire manufacturing plant in Hadera, Israel.
A like sum was provided by Israeli interests, and the securities were listed on the American Stock Exchange in 1953 as Alliance Tire and Rubber Co., with Taubman as president.
The company ultimately employed 2,000 people and was a large exporter to most countries of the world.
During the same period, Taubman founded an organization for acquiring tire and other rubber products from American manufacturers for distribution through chains similar to Advance Stores.
Today that company is TBC Corp. and its publicly traded stock is listed on the Nasdaq over-the-counter exchange. Taubman was president from its founding in 1948 until 1980.
In Roanoke, Taubman in 1966 received the first brotherhood award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
He was a member of the Committee of 12, an informal group that worked behind the scenes for peaceful integration of public facilities starting in 1960. He was chairman of the Roanoke Valley United Negro College Fund.
Taubman was a founding member of the Roanoke Symphony and of United Way's predecessor in the Roanoke Valley. He joined the board of First National Exchange Bank and in 1965 became a charter director of its successor, Dominion Bankshares Corp.
He was a past president of Temple Emanuel, a member of Beth Israel Synagogue and a director of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Roanoke Memorial Hospital and North Cross School.
A former member of the board of delegates of the American Jewish Committee, Taubman was listed in Who's Who in World Jewery. He was state president of B'nai B'rith and Roanoke Valley chairman of the United Jewish Appeal.
He was inducted into the Southwest Virginia Business Hall of Fame in April 1992.
Surviving are his wife, Grace Ann Weber Taubman; a son, Nicholas Taubman of Roanoke; and a daughter, Stephanie Low of New York City.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. today in Boca Raton. A private burial service will be held later in Roanoke.
The family requests that, instead of flowers, memorials be given to the Jewish Community Foundation of South Palm Beach County, 9901 Donna Klein Blvd., Boca Raton, Fla. 33428.
by CNB