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NORTH BETHESDA, Md. — Len DeMino, who spent more than 50 years involved in community pharmacy, died on Friday. He was 81.
After getting a pharmacy degree from George Washington University in 1956, DeMino began what would become a long career as a pharmacist and industry advocate in 1958 with Washington, D.C.-based Peoples Drug Stores and eventually became the chain’s vice president of professional services.
He retired from People’s in 1989 and joined the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, spearheading the association’s efforts to get its member more involved in pharmacy and government affairs.
He retired from NACDS in 2009. Later that year the NACDS Foundation established the Leonard J. DeMino Pharmacy Student Scholarship in his name.
During his half century working in and on behalf of community pharmacy, he was a witness to some of the industry’s most dramatic changes.
“The chain drug industry has changed in ways I’d never have imagined when I began my career,” he said in a 2009 interview with Chain Drug Review.
“I’ve lived through countless predictions of the demise of community pharmacy,” he said, noting changes in the way prescriptions are paid for and the impact this has had on many pharmacies’ bottom line has forced the industry to adjust the way it does business.
“At the end of this learning curve,” he said, “community pharmacy is as strong today as it has ever been.”
Visitation will beheld from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow at St. Elizabeth Roman Catholic Church in Rockville, Md. A funeral mass will be held in the church on Wednesday at 10 a.m. and burial will immediately follow at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Md.
Contributions can be made to the Leonard J. DeMino Scholarship Fund, c/o NACDS Foundation, 413 N. Lee St., Alexandria, Va., 22314.
