Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits chairman Harvey R. Chaplin died at age 95 yesterday at his home in Miami, the company announced.
“It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my beloved father, Harvey Chaplin, our company’s founder and chairman, and one of the icons of our industry,” CEO Wayne E. Chaplin said in a press release. “His influence as a leader, a philanthropist, a loving family man, and patriarch of our family has left an indelible mark on all who have known and worked with him. He was a larger-than-life figure and will be greatly missed by my family, and our entire Southern Glazer’s team.”
Chaplin was born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York. He began his career in the beverage-alcohol industry in 1946 at Manhattan-based Schenley Industries, a marketer of spirits and the importer of Dewar’s. He started as a part-time mailroom worker while still a student at Brooklyn Boys High School and was eventually promoted to run the company’s wholesale operations, according to the release.
In 1969, Chaplin joined the newly formed Southern Wine and Spirits of America in Miami and was part of the executive team that led the company to become the country’s largest bev-alc distributor in 1992, according to Southern Glazer’s website. Chaplin was named CEO of Southern in 1994.
Southern merged with Texas-based Glazer’s Distributing in 2016. The combined company operates in 44 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Southern Glazer’s sells more than 7,000 brands from more than 40 distribution centers. The company makes 7.1 million deliveries to retail customers each year, according to its website.
“Harvey and I shared a mutual dedication to family, commitment to our communities, and investing in people as the foundation of business success,” Southern Glazer’s executive vice chairman Bennett Glazer said in the release. “I am proud to have had him as a colleague and a friend, and join our entire Southern Glazer’s team in mourning his loss. On behalf of the entire leadership team, I extend our sympathies to his family, who meant the world to him.”
Chaplin was a prolific philanthropist whose name adorns several institutions in Miami, including the Harvey R. Chaplin Family Stroke and Chest Pain Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center, the Chaplin Family Pediatric Emergency Room at Holtz Children’s Hospital, the Harvey R. Chaplin Central Building at Temple Beth Shalom, and the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida International University.
Chaplin is predeceased by his first wife Arlene, and survived by his wife Roberta, three children, nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.