Started Gourmet Stores During Depression : Grocery Chain’s Harold Jurgensen Dies

Harold Jurgensen, founder of the small chain of upscale grocery stores that bears his name, died Monday--his 78th birthday--in Pasadena, where he was born and had spent his life.

Jurgensen took a $10,000 gamble during the height of the Depression, and it paid off handsomely. The chain at its peak was the nation’s third-largest purveyor of fine wines and spirits.

He borrowed that amount of money from his father, believing that despite difficult economic times, people still would pay a little extra for culinary delicacies.

His concentration on elegant goods, coupled with personal service that included home delivery, enabled him over the years to open stores from Santa Barbara to Laguna Beach. They once numbered 11 but had been reduced to seven when Jurgensen sold the chain to a group of supermarket executives last year.

He was a self-educated businessman whose formal schooling stopped at Pasadena High School. He worked after graduation as a sales and stockroom helper at the old Model Grocery Co. in Pasadena, where his father was general manager.

Jurgensen joined Cudahy Packing, where he learned the meat business before convincing his father that a gourmet selection of meats, produce and wines could offer a unique appeal in the otherwise drab 1930s. The store he opened at 842 E. California Blvd. still stands, but today it boasts offices befitting the Jurgensen expansion years.

Last year, in an interview with The Times, Jurgensen said: “The Depression was an opportune time to go into business. Financing and help from suppliers (who had few customers) were available.”

He made his first expansion when he bought a small general store and service station in the Linda Vista section of Pasadena, which remains the second Jurgensen’s in that city.

At one point the operation included an exclusive market with boat dock in Newport Beach where yachtsmen could tie up, stock their galleys and sail away.

In its early years, Jurgensen’s catered to the families of chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. and brewery baron Adolphus Busch, but more recently the stores have sent their gourmet offerings to such entertainment stars as Fred Astaire, James Stewart, Charlton Heston and Joan Collins.

Recently there has been more competition in the exclusive goods field from other markets, which have cut into Jurgensen’s once monopolistic business.

Jurgensen himself became one of his own best customers, developing a taste for fine wines and fancy foods that he often prepared himself.

Survivors include his wife, Jane, 3 sons, a daughter, 10 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Services will be private.