TELEMACHUS DEMOULAS
Services were held here last week for Telemachus "Mike" Demoulas, 82, who founded Demoulas Market Basket, Tewksberry, Mass., with his brother George in 1955. The company, launched with a 600-square-foot grocery store here, now operates 58 stores and had estimated revenues of $1.9 billion in 2002. Mike and George ran the chain together until 1971, when George died. At that point each brother's family controlled 50% of the company's stock, but a battle for control of the company ensued as Mike Demoulas gained a majority ownership stake. In a 1994 ruling, the Massachusetts State Superior Court found that Mike Demoulas had defrauded Evanthea Demoulas, George's widow, and her four children out of equal control of the company -- a ruling upheld in 1997 and again on appeal in 1999. Mike then resigned as president and chief executive officer, but the intrafamily legal case has continued.
JOSEPH DORIA
NEW YORK -- Joseph Doria Sr., who split from the family that operated the landmark Balducci's food store in the Greenwich Village neighborhood here to open Grace's Marketplace on the Upper East Side, died late last month of a heart attack. Doria and his wife, Grace Balducci Doria, a daughter of Balducci's patriarch Louis Balducci, left Balducci's in 1985 after a dispute with other family members to found Grace's, a speciality Italian-food store that has since expanded to include a restaurant and a cooking school. The Greenwich Village Balducci's was shuttered earlier this year by its Bethesda, Md.-based owner, Sutton Place Gourmet. Doria is survived by his wife, four sons, two daughters and three brothers.
