(RNN) - Charles Lazarus, the founder of Toys R Us, has died just a week after the company announced it was closing all of its North American stores.
Lazarus was 94. He continued to run the company as CEO until 1994.
Toys R Us told employees last week it was shuttering operations across the U.S. and Canada, including Babies R Us stores. It also announced it was closing its U.K. stores.
The toy chain was in business for 60 years. About 33,000 employees will lose their jobs.
“There have been many sad moments for Toys ‘R’ Us in recent weeks, and none more heartbreaking than today’s news about the passing of our beloved founder, Charles Lazarus,” the company said in a statement. “He visited us in New Jersey just last year and we will forever be grateful for his positive energy, passion for the customer and love for children everywhere.”
The CEO who succeeded Lazarus, Michael Goldstein, told CNN "he was the father of the toy business."
"He knew the toys and loved the toys and loved the kids who would shop in the stores," he said. "His face lit up when he watched kids playing with toys."
According to the company's history on its website, Lazarus was born to an entrepreneur father who ran a bicycle shop.
In 1948, Lazarus started a baby furniture story called Children's Bargain Town in Washington, DC. He began selling toys out of his store two years later.
In 1957, he established the first Toys R Us. He grew the company into an iconic retailer. Isaac Larian, the CEO of a major toymaker, MGA Entertainment, told The Washington Post last week: "There is no toy business without Toys R Us."
Lazarus was inducted into the Toy Industry Association Hall of Fame in 1990.
Toys R Us ultimately struggled to adapt to the digital age, as more and more people made their purchases online with competitors like Amazon, and was hobbled by a debt burden stemming from a 2006 private equity takeover.
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