Grant C. Gentry, who as a soldier participated in one of the most famous POW rescues of World War II, built a reputation as a businessman for helping turn around troubled food companies like the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.
“His great strength was his ability as an administrator to look at a company and help them work their way out of trouble,” said attorney Roger Galassini, a friend and business colleague of Mr. Gentry’s for more than 30 years.
Mr. Gentry, a longtime resident of Park Ridge, died March 4 of pulmonary fibrosis in Newport Beach, Calif., where he had a winter home. He was 79.
Like many young men of his era, Mr. Gentry joined the Army after high school. When he got his diploma from Lakeview High in Chicago he enlisted and was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division.
He made two combat jumps, including one on Feb. 23, 1945, into the Los Banos Prisoner of War Camp in the Philippines. His unit saved more than 2,000 civilians, including priests, doctors, nurses and missionaries, in one of the most famous rescues of the campaign.
Mr. Gentry, who received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, was honorably discharged in 1945. He enrolled at DePaul University, where he received his law degree in 1950. A specialist in tax law, he worked for International Harvester Co. in Chicago about six years before he joined Jewel Cos. Inc. in 1957.
At Jewel, Mr. Gentry rose through the ranks at the corporate office in Melrose Park, helping navigate a successful merger with a Boston grocery chain in the 1960s.
In 1975 A&P recruited Mr. Gentry to become its president at a time when the company was looking for a miracle after having lost $157 million the previous year.
He successfully negotiated a multimillion-dollar loan for A&P and reorganized its administrative structure, moves that helped the New Jersey company regain its financial footing, Galassini said.
Mr. Gentry was recruited in 1979 to perform a similar bailout at Philadelphia-based Food Fair Cos., later known as Pantry Pride. The company hired him as chief executive officer and chairman when it was experiencing one of the largest retail bankruptcies in history.
“He walked into this horrible mess after he was recruited by a creditors’ committee, and he reorganized the company, sold off its assets and negotiated with the creditors’ committee to get their claim down,” Galassini said. “That was his forte. He could determine how to minimize the liability, maximize the assets and get them through bankruptcy.”
In 1986 Mr. Gentry left Pantry Pride to become a consultant and board director for several companies. Although he never formally retired, Mr. Gentry pursued hobbies such as racquetball and handball when he wasn’t spending time with his wife of more than 60 years, high school sweetheart Doris Helsten.
“She was the love of his life,” Galassini said.
Besides his wife, Mr. Gentry is survived by two sons, Grant Jr. and Scott; and a sister, Doris Cleland.
A memorial service is being planned.
