Obituary: Jim Brown

MIRA LOMA, Calif. — Funeral services were scheduled over the weekend for Jim Brown, who spent 50 years with Ralphs Grocery Co. and 11 years with the Western Association of Food Chains. Brown died Aug. 7. The date of his funeral would have been his 82nd birthday. Brown joined Ralphs in 1943 as a box boy; by the time he retired in 1993, he was senior vice president, store operations. He left Ralphs to serve as executive vice president of WAFC, a position he held until his retirement in 2004. He is survived by his wife, Janet; four children; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Carole Christianson, who succeeded him at WAFC, called Brown “extremely humble and a man of great integrity for whom people were always his first priority.”