Byron Allumbaugh, a longtime chief executive and chairman of Ralphs Grocery Co. who counted deep ties to Orange County’s business community, passed away over the Oct. 29 weekend. He was 84.
Allumbaugh, a Newport Beach resident, had a 38-year career at Ralphs, beginning in 1958. He had managed a small supermarket chain in Orange County prior to joining the Compton-based chain, which became the largest grocer in Southern California during his 21-year stint as chief executive.
Allumbaugh kept the CEO’s post through a number of ownership changes. The company now is part of Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., which operates the Ralphs brand.
Allumbaugh retired from Ralphs in 1997, and later served on the boards of numerous companies, including several with OC connections.
Carpinteria-based CKE Restaurants named him chairman of the board of their company—which operates the Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, La Salsa and Green Burrito restaurant chains—in 2005. He had been on the CKE board for nearly a decade prior to that, beginning when the fast food company was based in Anaheim.
His stint as chairman coincided with the 2010 sale of CKE to private equity investment firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, in a $928 million deal.
Allumbaugh also served as chairman of the Costa Mesa-based Automobile Club of Southern California, and as a director of Newport Beach-based cabinet-maker RSI Holding LLC.
Allumbaugh also served as a director for the Orange County Performing Arts Center, in Costa Mesa.
The Ronnie & Byron Allumbaugh Conference Center, part of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian’s Jeffrey M. Carlton Heart & Vascular Institute in Newport Beach, is named after Allumbaugh and his wife of 40 years, Ronnie.
Allumbaugh received an award from the Horatio Alger Association in 1996 for being a successful individual who lived a life of integrity, hard work, perseverance, compassion for others and support of free-enterprise and higher education.
The Alexandria, Va.-based non-profit association is named after the 19th Century author who wrote about rising from poverty to wealth via perseverance and hard work.
Allumbaugh got his start in the grocery business at age 12, when he was an apprentice meat cutter. He later worked full-time as a meat cutter while attending high school and during his first two years in college.
“By the time I graduated from college I was a journeyman meat cutter,” Allumbaugh said during an interview with the Horatio Alger Association.
“It was something that I knew that would work for me later in life if I needed to carry on,” said Allumbaugh, whose first position at Ralphs was as a meat manager.
Allumbaugh’s family held a private service for him at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach on Nov. 2.
The family asks friends and mourners to donate to the Hoag Hospital Foundation, in lieu of flowers, to support medical education at the Ronnie & Byron Allumbaugh Conference Center.
