Leon Levine was an American businessman and philanthropist best known for being the founder of the Family Dollar chain of discount stores that shaped the daily lives of the nation’s poor. Levine's family owned a family operated store in a small town called The Hub and he took charge of it in his teen years when his brother was deployed to fight in the Korean War. He briefly attended the University of Miami and took classes at but he never graduated. In 1959, at age 22, he opened his first store ... moreLeon Levine was an American businessman and philanthropist best known for being the founder of the Family Dollar chain of discount stores that shaped the daily lives of the nation’s poor. Levine's family owned a family operated store in a small town called The Hub and he took charge of it in his teen years when his brother was deployed to fight in the Korean War. He briefly attended the University of Miami and took classes at but he never graduated. In 1959, at age 22, he opened his first store which he named Family Dollar and grew it to the present day billion dollar business with 8,000 Family Dollar locations nationwide. Levine retired from Family Dollar in 2003 and focused on philanthropy. He then started the Leon Levine Foundation, where he put out more than $300 million, to fund antipoverty programs throughout the Carolinas, a cancer institute in Charlotte, an interdisciplinary science center at Duke University and a children’s museum in Rockingham.
