March 5, 1930 – May 15, 2020
Charles B. Barcelona emerged as a Buffalo civic leader almost overnight.
Six years after he arrived here in 1976 to rescue the financially ailing Loblaws and Bells supermarkets, The Buffalo News hailed him as one of its Citizens of the Year.
As president and chief executive officer of Peter J. Schmitt Co., parent firm of the stores, he had built sales to more than $1 billion annually despite the economically depressed times.
Mayor James Griffin tapped him to become a member an advisory group of influential businessmen, the Group of 18. Industry Week magazine named him as one of the Buffalo area’s five “movers and shakers.”
He also became a major supporter of the Buffalo Bills. He arranged to buy unsold seats for Bills games, including quarterback Jim Kelly’s first home game as a Bill in 1986, in order to override the NFL’s blackout rule so that fans could watch on TV.
“Everything about him was all about Western New York,” said Philip Catanese, who was vice president and general manager of Bells. “Chuck put his money where his mouth was.”
Mr. Barcelona died May 15 in Boca Raton, Fla., after a period of declining health. He was 90.
Born in Charleroi, Pa., Charles Bernard Barcelona was a standout high school athlete and worked as a newspaper carrier and a pin boy in the local bowling alley.
Playing fullback at the University of Toledo, which he attended on a football scholarship, he was team captain and was chosen for the Mid-American Conference all-star team. In 1979, he was one of the recipients of the NCAA’s Silver Anniversary Award for college athletes who went on to great accomplishments.
Among those urging him on in Toledo was Nancy Naumann, captain of the cheerleading squad. They were married on the weekend before Thanksgiving in 1952.
He worked on the college newspaper and was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and the Newman Club. For a summer job, he sold clothing at a Robert Hall men’s store and won a bonus for selling the most fur coats in Toledo in July.
A member of the ROTC, he was commissioned as an Army officer when he graduated in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Stationed in Germany, he served as a company commander and attained the rank of first lieutenant.
He began his career in the food industry in 1958 with Fox Grocery Co. in Belle Vernon, Pa., and started the Foodland stores in the Pittsburgh area. He became director of corporate sales and was named vice president in 1971.
His business dealings with George Weston Ltd. and Loblaw Companies Ltd. in Toronto led to the offer of an executive position in 1976, overseeing a group of subsidiaries that included Peter J. Schmitt Co. In a reorganization later that year, he was sent to Buffalo to become president of Schmitt, which was losing $16 million a year. At the time, it included Loblaws and Bells stores from Syracuse to Erie, Pa.
“He took the sum of the whole and made them into one,” his son Brett said.
He built it into the nation’s 13th largest food wholesaler, supplying more than 350 supermarkets in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, including the Bells supermarkets locally.
“My approach was to reorganize the company and have people identify with it,” Mr. Barcelona told writer Stephanie Christopher for an article in Western New York magazine in 1982. “I wanted them to become proud of the company.”
Charles Barcelona in the lobby of the new Peter J. Schmitt headquarters in West Seneca in 1983. (Robert L. Smith/News file photo)
He moved the company’s offices from the Clinton-Bailey Market to quarters on Harlem Road in West Seneca. For his efforts in starting programs to develop the careers of women employees, he received the YWCA Corporate Award in 1985.
Mr. Barcelona organized a leveraged buyout in 1988 that gained Schmitt independence from its Canadian owners. He continued as a consultant after he retired in 1991.
A staunch supporter of the Buffalo Bills, he was a founder of the Monday Quarterback Club and was a leader of the Back the Bills campaign to generate more season ticket sales in the mid-1980s.
He was a primary sponsor of Kelly’s Kids Foundation and helped start the football Hall of Famer’s annual celebrity golf tournament, one of the major events on the local sports calendar. He hosted the annual party for the celebrity golfers on the night before the tournament in the back yard of his East Aurora home.
He also was involved with all the city’s other major sports teams. He even sat briefly on the board of directors of the Braves. For the Bisons’ opening weekend at their new downtown ballpark in 1988, he arranged for a guest appearance by canine beer mascot Spuds MacKenzie.
He also was a member of the boards of the Buffalo Area Chamber of Commerce, Children’s Hospital and Buffalo’s Waterfront Development Corp. In addition, he was a chairman or director of several local, state and national food marketing organizations, including the National American Wholesale Grocers Association.
Through Peter J. Schmitt, Bells and his personal generosity, he supported numerous charities.
He urged Bells employees to participate 100% in the United Way and provided major support for fund drives for Catholic Charities, the March of Dimes and Boys Town of Italy, which presented him with its Man of the Year award in 1982. He also was honored in 1982 with the Man of the Year Award from the Greater Buffalo Advertising Club.
In retirement, he became a developer, beginning in 1993 with his purchase of neglected Snug Harbor Marina about a mile south of Chautauqua Institute, which he discovered while boating on Chautauqua Lake.
“Dad was always a very busy person,” his son said. “Snug Harbor was an opportunity to take a business that was not really thriving and he made a wonderful marina.”
He upgraded the canal leading to the marina, added a boat repair facility and remodeled a building on the property into a vacation home.
Returning to live in the Pittsburgh area, he created three mobile home developments in Charleroi. He continued to operate them until 2015, when he retired to Boca Raton, where he had a winter home for many years.
In addition to his wife and son, survivors include two daughters, Bindy Bucci and Beth Lipovich; 18 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian Burial was offered at May 18 in St. Jude Catholic Church, Boca Raton, Fla.
