Bertram Loeb, the Ottawa businessman who led his family's eponymous grocery store chain through a major expansion and opened Canada's first IGA franchise, died Monday of multiple myeloma. He was 90.

He was to be buried following a funeral held Wednesday morning.

Bertram Loeb introduced the IGA brand in Canada.
(University of Ottawa)

Loeb was the second-oldest of six sons of Russian immigrant Moses Loeb, who founded the family business in 1912 by selling candy and tobacco to grocery stores from a wagon.

The Loeb family business remained a small wholesale warehouse operation until Bertram Loeb took over after serving at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa during the Second World War.

Under his direction, the business expanded rapidly after 1950. One of his most significant business decisions was to buy the country's first Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA) grocery store franchises.

Loeb remained a director of the company until 1977. Loeb Canada Inc. is now owned by Montreal-based grocery store giant Metro Inc.

'He never put his money in silly things.'— Rabbi Reuven Bulka

Over the years, he became a well-known philanthropist in his community.

"He never put his money in silly things," said Rabbi Reuven Bulka, a close friend who knew Loeb for 40 years and conducted his funeral service.

Bulka is also chair of the Bertram Loeb Organ-Tissue Donation Institute that his friend funded. The institute is paying for a new organ donation research chair at the University of Ottawa and has significantly increased the number of corneas donated to restore people's eyesight.

Donations also put Loeb's family name on the Loeb Building at Carleton University, which houses the university's music department, and on the Loeb Health Research Institute, which merged with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute to form the Ottawa Health Research Institute in 2001.

Loeb is survived by his daughters Naomi and Diane, his grandson Samuel, and his brothers Jules and David.