Brown's medical school receives $100 million gift from convenience store chain founder

The founder of convenience store chain Xtra Mart is giving $100 million to the Brown University medical school to construct a new building, fund scholarships and attract top researchers and doctors.

In return, Brown announced Monday it would rename its 35-year-old medical school in honor of Warren Alpert, 86, the founder and chairman of Warren Equities Inc., which sells fuel and groceries in more than 400 Xtra Mart convenience stores in the Northeast.

"The scope of the gift is so significant that it will affect virtually every dimension of the medical school," Brown University President Ruth Simmons said.

The gift is the largest ever received by the medical school, and the largest ever given by the Providence-based Warren Alpert Foundation. "We hope to build this into one of the great medical schools in the country," said Herbert Kaplan, the foundation's president.

Kaplan said Alpert has always been fascinated with medical education, and said he believed it was the way to help mankind. Alpert, who lives in New York, started his company in Providence in 1950.