N.J. -- Funeral services were held here for Nicholas J. Sumas, a founding member of Wakefern Food Corp., Elizabeth, N.J. He was 91 when he died on April 8.
Sumas and his brother Perry founded Village Super Market in 1937 and 10 years later joined with several other small store owners to form Wakefern, the distribution and marketing cooperative whose members operate supermarkets under the ShopRite banner in five Northeastern states. Sumas was president of Wakefern in 1954 and 1955.
In 1954 Village Super Market was incorporated, with Nicholas Sumas as chairman of the board, and in 1959 the two brothers opened their second store. Village currently operates 23 ShopRite stores in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.
Sumas is survived by his brother Perry, two sons, two sisters, five grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
ALACHUA, Fla. -- Funeral services have been held here for Robert Hitchcock Jr., president of seven-store Hitchcock Foodway Supermarkets here, who died April 4 following an extended battle with cancer. He was 69. Hitchcock was chairman for the past 15 years of Affiliated of Florida, the Tampa-based cooperative, and a member of its board since 1969. He was also president of the Retail Grocers Association of Florida (now known as Florida Food Industries) in 1982-83.
He is survived by his wife, Betty; a son, Robert Alan Hitchcock; a daughter, Laura; and four grandchildren.