OBITUARY: ROBERT ONSTEAD

HOUSTON -- Funeral services were held here last week for Robert Onstead, one of the founders of Randalls Food Markets, who died of heart failure Aug. 4 while on vacation in Italy. He was 73. Onstead and his partners, Randall C. Barclay and Norman Frewin, founded the chain here in 1966 and grew it into a regional powerhouse before Onstead had retired in 1998 after serving as chairman for several years. Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., acquired the company in 1999, when it operated 117 stores here and in other Texas markets. Randall Onstead, his son, is now president of Safeway's Chicago-area chain, Dominick's Finer Foods.