Most of us have eaten at Subway as it is a multinational fast food company that has been in business for 60 years. The restaurant boasts 37,000 locations worldwide, over 400,000 employees and has revenues usually in the tens of billions of dollars. We have seen Subway plugged in the Adam Sandler movie Happy Gilmore and in the Muppets Most Wanted to TV shows such as Chuck and Hawaii 5-0. However, teeing off a Subway sandwich is an art of its own that only Sandler could pull off. You will be surprised to know how the company was founded. Peter Buck, one of the co-founders, lived an interesting life from a physicist to an entrepreneur. On his way to restaurant success, he studied physics earning a PhD in the subject from Columbia University to working at General Electric and United Nuclear. While at GE, he worked at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, which is dedicated to supporting the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. The program, also known as Naval Reactors, oversees and is responsible for the safe and reliable operation of the United States Navy’s nuclear reactors from “womb to tomb.” While Buck was at the atomic laboratory, he performed tests and calculations on atomic power plants being developed for US Navy submarines and ships. Buck left the laboratory and worked at United Nuclear and Nuclear Enegegy Services before stepping into being a restauranteur.
In 1965, he partnered with Fred DeLuca by loaning him $1,000 to open a sub shop. Buck and DeLuca formed “Doctor’s Associates” to manage the new and growing business. They met challenges as their two shops were not financially successful. However, they pressed forward. By the early 1970s, they had 16 locations throughout Connecticut and in 1974 they began franchising restaurants. The first franchise opened in Wallingford, CT, in 197,6 and the first Subway on the West Coast opened in 1978 in Fresno, CA. Subway opened its first international location in 1986 in Bahrain and opened its first UK location in Brighton in 1996. Subway has since partnered with Walmart supercenters by having restaurants at certain Walmart supercenter locations and the chain surpassed McDonald’s locations partnered with Walmart in 2007.
By 2015, Buck was on the Forbes 400 list at number 261 for being one of the wealthiest people. His overall net worth was estimated at $1.6B. With his wealth, Buck turned to philanthropy, supporting such causes as education, journalism, medicine and land conservation. When he passed in 2021, Buck gave his 50% share in Subway to his philanthropy foundation, Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation (PCLB), which was estimated at around $5B. He also made donations to the Smithsonian Institution. Buck is survived by his children, Christopher and William. His second wife, Carmen, passed in 2003. Buck created a restaurant giant that offers fine-tasting sub sandwiches and healthy choices for people all over the world, which is an interesting end state for a sub shop co-founder by a US Navy physicist working on nuclear reactors. Who would have thought?