Monroe Milstein, Burlington Coat Factory Founder, Dies at 98

Monroe Milstein, Burlington Coat Factory Founder, Dies at 98

Monroe Milstein, who turned a $75,000 investment in a derelict New Jersey garment plant into the nation’s third-largest discount retailer, Burlington Coat Factory — which he would sell in 2006 for more than $2 billion — died on May 9 at his home in Bal Harbour, Fla. He was 98. The cause was complications of dementia, his grandson Samuel Milstein said. Mr. Milstein’s career was not quite a rags-to-riches story, unless the word “rags” is synonymou…