Max Levit

1934 - 2024

Max Levit
12/22/1934 - 10/21/2024
Work Hard, Be Nice, Have Fun. These were words that Max Levit often repeated and always lived by.
Max Stanley Levit was born to Joe and Dora Levit on December 22, 1934. The youngest of three brothers, he lived on South McGregor and graduated from San Jacinto High School. Moving on to the University of Texas, Max was president of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and was honored to be a member of the prestigious Texas Cowboy service organization. He also served as head of the committee to select the Cowboy Sweethearts, a role that he was uniquely qualified for.
Upon graduation from UT Max went into the Navy, serving as a supply officer on the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. After a 2-year tour in the South Pacific, a time that Max remembered fondly, he returned to Houston to work for the family business, The Grocers Supply Company. Started by his parents, Joe and Dora, in 1923, Max and his brothers, Milton and George, built Grocers Supply into the largest independently owned wholesaler of grocery products in the Southeastern US and the largest supplier of Hispanic grocery products in the country. Max was extremely proud of Grocers Supply and loved being a part of operations, negotiations and management. He truly embodied the company's philosophy of honesty, integrity and doing business on a handshake.
In 1961 Max met and married Rochelle Lynn Hoffman and soon after started a family. They had three children, Tracy, Clay, and Cindy. Max was an extremely loving and involved father, taking the kids out for special Sunday breakfasts, coaching little league, and going on family vacations. He was rarely in a bad mood, perhaps because of his devotion to exercise, which was a daily part of his life. After work each day when the kids were little, he would go visit his mother then come home and go for a run. In later years he frequented The Houstonian in his famous James Coney Island hot dog shirt, where friends joked that he was "the mayor" because of the amount of time he spent chatting with the other members compared to the time he spent exercising.
Philanthropy was a priority to Max, as is evident by the number of Houston institutions, including Stages Theater, MD Anderson, Memorial Park Conservancy, and Beth Israel Synagogue, that have a wing, feature, or building bearing his name. He was also generous with his time and talent, serving on many boards including the Houston Food Bank, Texas Heart Institute, MD Anderson and UT Health Houston, where he served as president. In 1996, along with his best friend, Morrie Abramson, Max received the Torch of Liberty Award, bestowed by the Southwest Region of the Anti-Defamation League.
When the Levit family sold Grocers Supply in 2014, Max became president of 2ML Real Estate Interests, an offshoot of Grocers Supply. The 2ML project that Max was most proud of was Levit Green, a 52-acre mixed-use project adjacent to the Texas Medical Center that sits at the epicenter of Houston's biotech, corporate life sciences and medical research hub.
Max loved his work and loved his family, but he really loved to have fun. Bridge was a huge part of Max's life. He learned to play from Papa Joe, his father, who said it was the most fun you could have with your clothes on. Max played in Houston for decades and became a Saphire Life Master. It was through the love of bridge that Max met his wife Lynne, who was his beloved partner in the last years of his life. They brought each other so much joy and spent the too-short time they had together enjoying cruises, world travel, meals out with friends, and a whole lot of laughing. Lynne's large family embraced Max, and he was honored to consider himself a part of their tribe.
Max died peacefully at home with Lynne at his side holding his hand. He will be deeply missed. He is survived by his wife Lynne, his children and grandchildren: Tracy and Glen Larner and Maddox; Clay and Katy Levit, Rose, Nate Aune, and Saoirse; and Cindy Levit, Ryan and Ian; as well as Lynne's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren: Lisa and Charles Williams, Bailey, Emma Horwitz, Megan, Charlie, Ryan, Peter and Patrick; Patrick and Charlotte Beathard, Julianna and Lee Siratt, Bear and Rosie, Drew, Beau, Zachary and Tess; Trey and Angela Beathard, Bob, Bennett and Beck; and Tiffany and Charles Masterson, Chloe, Lili, Mia and William. He was predeceased by his wife Rochelle and his brothers Milton and George.
All of us will remember to work hard, be nice and have fun – and don't be a horse's ass, as Max was fond of adding. And all of us will remember Max with love in our hearts. May his memory be a blessing.
A memorial service will be held at Congregation Beth Israel on Wednesday, October 23 at 2PM. In lieu of flowers donations can be sent to The Houston Holocaust Museum or Congregation Beth Israel.