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Peter Buck who co-founded Subway in 1965 and watched it grow into a worldwide franchise, has died at the age of 90, the company said in a statement.
Buck, a nuclear physicist who was born in Portland, Maine, in 1930, died at a hospital in Danbury, Connecticut, on Nov. 18. The cause of his death was not disclosed.
This undated photo provided by Subway, shows Peter Buck, co-founder of the Subway Sandwich chain. (Subway via AP)
At 17, family friend Fred DeLuca had asked Buck how he could make some money to help pay for college. Buck’s answer? Open a sandwich shop.
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A Subway restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta, on Sept. 11, 2018. Recently, the co-founder of the chain died at 90. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In 1965, he and DeLuca opened “Pete’s Super Submarines” in Bridgeport, with the priciest sandwich selling for 69 cents.
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The duo changed the name to “Subway” three years later and decided to turn it into a chain by franchising – a move that would eventually make both of them billionaires. Forbes estimated Buck’s net worth at $1.7 billion. DeLuca died in 2015 at age 67.
Subway says it now has more than 40,000 locations worldwide, topping McDonald’s and Starbucks.
“We didn’t make a profit for 15 years,” Buck told The Wall Street Journal in 2014.
Asked if he ever thought the chain would grow so big, he told the newspaper, “Well, I always thought we’d get bigger and bigger, but I really didn’t have a certain number in mind.”
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A worker makes a sandwich at Subway in Hanover, Germany, on Aug. 21, 2015. (Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images)
As a physicist, Buck was hired by General Electric in 1957 at a laboratory in Schenectady, New York, and worked on atomic power plants for U.S. Navy submarines and ships. He later worked for United Nuclear in White Plains, New York, and Nuclear Energy Services in Danbury, where he made his home, according to an obituary prepared by his family.
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He also pursued philanthropy, making significant donations to many organizations, including the Smithsonian Institution, to which he gave a 23-carat ruby named after his late second wife, Carmen Lucia Buck, in 2004.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.