Teetotaling Son of K Mart Founder Giving Away Stock

The son of the founder of K mart Corp. says he has been giving away his stock in the nation’s second largest retail chain because some of the stores sell beer and wine.

Stanley S. Kresge, 84, said his religious beliefs include a view that alcohol “does so much harm to so many people.”

“I haven’t been interested in holding onto it because of that,” he said of the beer and wine sales.

Kresge, former board chairman and now a trustee of the Kresge Foundation, two weeks ago gave $800,000 worth of K mart stock to Duke University Divinity School in North Carolina, operated by the Methodist Church.

Kresge has a long record of philanthropy and adherence to Methodist doctrine and is chairman of the board at Metropolitan United Methodist Church in Detroit.

He would not reveal his holdings, but said he began giving away his stock shortly after the stores began selling alcoholic beverages in April, 1981.

“I for one don’t want to be connected with something so harmful,” he told the Detroit Free Press.