Arizona educator reflects on Eddie Basha's dedication to schools

March 27, 2013

Arizona educators are remembering Eddie Basha for his dedication to public schools and children in need.  The businessman and philanthropist died Tuesday at age 75. 

He’s probably best known for the chain of grocery stores that his family started in Arizona, but Eddie Basha also served on the State Board of Regents and ran for governor in the 1990s. 

Chandler Unified School District Superintendent Camille Casteel said he was a kind and caring man who gave the district his personal credit card to take care of children from low income families:  “Any child that needed shoes or a coat or clothing…we had a credit card to go out and purchase what that child needed.  And, especially in the winter typically we’d get a phone call because nothing was on his charge account and he’d say so do all of the children have a coat?”

Casteel says Basha served on the Chandler school board for 12 years and he started a student crisis fund that provided meals for underprivileged students.  Chandler was Basha’s hometown and in 2002 the district named a high school after him.