Founder of OKC-Based Crest Fresh Market Passes Away

Nick Harroz Jr., the founder of Crest Fresh Market based in Oklahoma City, has passed away on Wednesday, March 12.

Harroz died at his home in Edmond from complications of congestive heart failure. He was 92 years old.

Harroz is the founder of Crest Fresh Market, which began in the late 1940s. Today, it has eight Oklahoma City metro locations, including a recently opened store in Norman.

Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1921, Harroz moved with his family to Oklahoma City in 1929 when his father opened the family's first grocery store, Fairview Grocery, at S.W. 29th and Agnew. After graduating from Capitol Hill High School, he joined the U.S. Navy Air Corps where he was commissioned as an officer and trained fighter plots.

Following the end of World War II, Harroz returned home and opened his first grocery store, Nick's Brett Drive Grocery in Midwest City. Soon after, he married his love Cherry who remained his partner for more than 60 years.

Over the next few decades, the company continued to grow and prosper. Two more locations were added, including Crest #2 in Midwest City and in 1997 Crest #3 in Edmond. He retired from the business in the late 1990s.

Crest is now run by Harroz's son Bruce Harroz, president and third-generation owner, who purchased the company from his parents in 1999. His grandson Sam Homsey is a fourth-generation grocer and a store manager. His granddaughter Christian Harroz Duthie handles advertising and public relations for the company. His grandson Nick Harroz III serves as senior advisor and outside counsel to the company.

Services for Harroz will be held at 10:30 a.m. on March 15 at St. Elijah Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, 150th and North May. Burial will follow at Arlington Memory Gardens in Oklahoma City.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to be sent to the "Flowers That Do Not Wither Fund" at St. Elijah.