Peter Buck was the co-founder of the Subway chain of sandwich shops.
- Died: November 18, 2021 (Who else died on November 18?)
- Details of death: Died at a hospital in Danbury, Connecticut at the age of 90.
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The birth of Subway
Buck hadn’t planned to be a restaurateur – he was a nuclear physicist who designed nuclear reactors. But when a family friend, Fred DeLuca (1947–2015), asked Buck for advice on how he should pay for college, he suggested the young man open a sandwich shop. The two were inspired by a visit to a restaurant in Maine that Buck had often visited as a child. With a $1000 loan from Buck, DeLuca opened Pete’s Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut, named for Buck.
After the 1965 grand opening, Buck and DeLuca formed the holding company Doctors’ Associates, which still owns Subway today. The first restaurant was renamed Pete’s Subway in 1968, later shortened to Subway. In 1974, the first franchises were established, and today, is the world’s largest restaurant chain by number of restaurants, with about 40,000 locations. Buck continued to work as a nuclear physicist for years after co-founding Subway. He said that he ate at Subway at least five times a week – his favorite sandwich was tuna salad on Italian bread.
Tributes to Peter Buck
Full obituary: The Washington Post
