In 1958, at age 37, Doris Brown decided to go back to school to pursue her dream of attending university. She is pictured with her diploma from Sir George Williams University, one of Concordia's founding institutions.
Doris Brown, BA 67, knows the power of healthy food and exercise. After all, it’s helped her reach the age of 100, a milestone she celebrated with close family on March 15.
Brown embraced healthy living and eating long before it was a trend. When her late husband Eli, a former boxer, began developing health issues in his 40s, he discovered the New Pritikin Program — a plant-based diet.
“That’s when we both started eating healthier,” recalls Brown.
In 1985, Eli and Doris purchased Marché TAU, a health food store on Denis Street in Montreal. The entrepreneurial couple, already in their 60s by then, were passionate advocates of organic food and natural ingredients, and Eli had big dreams of expanding the operation.
“Health food stores were much different back then. So much was in bulk, and they didn’t have the options we have today,” says Brown. “When we started, this business was in its infancy; they were boutiques. We would talk about what we wanted our store to be.”
Two years later, a second TAU location opened in Brossard, becoming the largest health food store in Canada.
“We pioneered the small supermarket health food store. We even bought a farm in Compton [Quebec] in the 1990s to have a better supply of organic vegetables," Brown adds. "But I never thought we would have health food stores the size of big supermarkets today.”
There are currently six TAU locations, which are overseen by Brown’s grandsons Gideon and Robbie Brown, and their friend Andrew Facchino.
“The arts were my great pleasures in life, especially painting. Each painting speaks to me in a different way,” says Brown, whose work has been exhibited in local galleries.
