Sam Lender, 84, bagel tycoon
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — Sam Lender, who along with his brothers turned a tiny Connecticut bakery into the national company Lender’s Bagels, died Oct. 17 at Hospice By the Sea in Boca Raton. He was 84.
Mr. Lender died of heart failure, said his daughter, Marcy Lender LeBlanc.
A native of Lublin, Poland, Mr. Lender moved to New Haven, Conn., in 1929. He was 12 when he began working at his father’s bagel business, hand rolling dough into bagels in the bakery with his brothers.
By the mid-1930s, they had eight workers who produced 300 dozen bagels daily.
The brothers decided to freeze their bagels and their product went national in 1967.
“Now you can get them all over the world,” Mrs. LeBlanc said.
Mr. Lender and his wife, Lena, moved to Palm Beach County, after retiring. He was an active philanthropist and involved in local politics, Mrs. LeBlanc said.
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