KOFFLER, MURRAY

KOFFLER, MURRAY (1924– ), Canadian pharmacist, entrepreneur, philanthropist. Koffler was born in Toronto. His Romanian-born parents married in Toronto in 1921 where his father, Leon, eventually operated two pharmacies, one in the downtown Jewish neighborhood. Murray Koffler inherited the stores after his father's death and in 1946 graduated from the Ontario College of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. With a keen business sense, he recognized the opportunities offered in meeting the drugstore needs of expanding suburban communities and the drawing power of an inviting self-service shopping format. The Shopper's Drug Mart chain took shape. By the time he sold his interest in Shopper's Drug Mart, Koffler had overseen a public company of more than 500 licensed and franchised drugstores across Canada. Koffler's business interests also extended beyond drugstores. In addition, he was a founding partner in the successful up-market Four Seasons Hotel chain. Together with his wife Marvelle, Koffler shared his success with the Jewish and larger community. A member or director of many charitable organizations, he remained a strong supporter of the arts, education, and medicine, the founder of the annual Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, and a moving force behind incorporation of the Koffler Centre for the Arts into the large Toronto Jewish Community Centre complex. His generous contributions to the University of Toronto include the Koffler Student Centre and the Institute for the Study of Pharmacy Management. Active in the Toronto Jewish community, he was a major contributor to the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and the Baycrest Centre Jewish Home for the Aged. A champion of Israel, Koffler was a patron of the Weizmann Institute for Science, where his financial initiatives enabled construction of the Koffler Accelerator Tower, the centerpiece of the Institute's Canada Centre for Nuclear Physics. Murray Koffler was honored with the Order of Canada and in 1997 Murray and Marvelle Koffler were named Outstanding Philanthropists by the National Society of Fund Raising Executives. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Rasky, Just a Simple Pharmacist: The Story of Murray Koffler (1988). (Harold Troper (2nd ed.)