Convenience Industry Mourns the Loss of Robert Gordon

Robert “Bob” Gordon, who served as the 1997–1998 NACS Chairman, died on Monday, June 22 at the age of 87. Gordon was the founder of Store 24, a chain of convenience stores he founded in 1968 in the Boston area. In 2002, he sold he company to Tedeschi Food Shops.

Gordon was instrumental in fostering the growth of international engagement at NACS. “One of the things I was pushing as NACS Chairman was that NACS should really think of itself as a worldwide entity. The industry was operating around the world, and people in other countries were looking to see what the U.S. was doing. But in many cases, they were developing initiatives that I thought would be useful to people operating domestically,” he said in a 2002 interview.

Gordon said he wanted to be remembered as a NACS chairman who was passionate about international engagement and getting NACS to think of itself as an international player—"that is the chief thing that I tried to do,” he said. “It took a while for very domestic-oriented retailers to start to think that there might be some value [internationally]…but planting the seed got it eventually adopted by the NACS Executive Committee in terms of laying out directions for the future,” he shared.

His love for traveling the world with his wife, Doris, led to numerous business and charitable ventures. They enjoyed live music and were regular attendees at the Boston Symphony and countless Phish concerts—from the very first to the most recent—where Gordon’s son Mike plays bass. “He came to the first show using the name Phish—just a few people in the room, and then hundreds more concerts up until the very last Sphere show,” Mike said about his dad in an Instagram post.

Gordon’s obituary notes that his dedication to his family was matched by his dedication to social justice. He founded Action for Soviet Jewry in 1974, and traveled repeatedly to the Soviet Union where he distributed contraband items such as Torahs and electronics to those in need. He and others visited persecuted Soviet Jews, who were referred to as “refuseniks” until the Soviets declared him persona non-grata and barred his entry.

Gordon also served as president of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, a group that worked with Congress, including the late Rep. Father Robert Drinan (D-MA), to pressure the Soviets to let the Jews emigrate. In this capacity, Gordon met with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and worked with Natan Sharansky, an imprisoned refusenik and prominent dissident. Ultimately, Gordon’s work, along with similar efforts, prevailed and over 1,600,000 Jews were allowed to leave.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Gordon and his wife traveled to Ukraine many times, pioneering a friendship between the Jewish communities of Boston and Dnipropetrovsk, which became known as Boston’s “Jewish sister city.”

As a business owner, Gordon embedded a philosophy of civic responsibility deeply in the company’s culture. He chose to open stores in disenfranchised neighborhoods where other businesses were afraid to venture, with the goal of rejuvenating the communities.

Gordon believed in being a good neighbor in each location, actively engaging with local needs and understanding what mattered most to the people he served. Store 24 was involved with local organizations and hosted community events. Within the company, he encouraged and challenged employees to think boldly and believe in their own potential, and many employees grew their careers within the company.

Gordon’s influence in the convenience industry extended beyond his own company. He became president of the New England Convenience Store Association and NACS Chairman (1997–1998).

Up until the time of his passing, Gordon worked in commercial real estate investment and, along with his wife, supported various local nonprofit and charitable organizations, including public art installations in the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

Gordon is survived by his wife Doris, children Dave and Mike, stepchildren Lori and Lisa, and grandchildren Jonah, Max, Lila, Tessa, Tristan and Eloise. Gifts celebrating his life can be donated to The Soviet Jewry Movement Education Project.