David Graves Mugar (April 27, 1939 – January 25, 2022) was an Armenian-American businessman from

Belmont, Massachusetts Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a western suburb of Boston and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, its population was 27,295, an increase of 10.4% from 2010. H ...

. He was a member of the Mugar family of

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...

. He was CEO and chair of Mugar Enterprises. His father, Stephen P. Mugar, was the founder of the Star Market supermarket chain and was also a major Boston-area philanthropist.

Life and career

Mugar was born on April 27, 1939. He attended the Cambridge School of Weston and in 1962 graduated from

Babson College Babson College is a Private university, private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States specializing in entrepreneurship education. Founded in 1919 by Roger Babson, the college was established as the Babson Institute in his We ...

. The Mugar Omni Theater at Boston's Museum of Science was named after Mugar's parents, and Mugar was a museum trustee.

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

's Mugar Memorial Library, the university's main study and research library, is named after his grandparents. Mugar worked as an executive producer of Boston's Fourth of July celebration—since the mid-1970s, closely associated with the

Boston Pops The Boston Pops is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symphony Orc ...

concert at the Hatch Memorial Shell on the

Esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

—organized by the Boston 4 Celebrations Foundation, a

not-for-profit organization A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

founded by Mugar. Mugar also owned WNEV, later known as WHDH (locally, channel 7), a television station broadcasting throughout the Greater Boston area. In 2002, Mugar gave $5,000,000 for a new wing at the Cape Cod Hospital, in

Hyannis, Massachusetts Hyannis is the largest of the seven villages in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States. It is the commercial and transportation hub of Cape Cod and was designated an urban area at the 1990 census. Because of this, many refer to Hya ...

. In 2011, Mugar was entangled in controversy when it was discovered that the CBS national coverage of Boston's Fourth of July celebration included digitally-altered fireworks clips. During the broadcast, fireworks were seemingly exploding behind famous Boston landmarks, such as home plate at

Fenway Park Fenway Park is a ballpark located in Boston, Massachusetts, less than one mile from Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home field of Major League Baseball's (MLB) Boston Red Sox. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was substantia ...

, the

Massachusetts State House The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the List of state capitols in the United States, state capitol and seat of government for the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, lo ...

, and

Faneuil Hall Faneuil Hall ( or ; previously ) is a marketplace and meeting hall near the waterfront and Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches ...

. Some viewers noticed the geographical impossibility of these clips and alerted ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

''. A front-page story in the newspaper on July 8 broke the story to the public. According to the Federal Election Commission, in 2011 Mugar donated $250,000 to Restore Our Future, Inc., the

super PAC Independent expenditure-only political action committees, better known as super PACs, are a type of political action committee (PAC) in the United States. Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are legally allowed to fundraise unlimited amounts of m ...

supporting

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...

's presidential campaign. Mugar died on January 25, 2022, at the age of 82. In September 2023, a bronze statue of Mugar was unveiled on the Esplanade in Boston. At the dedication of the statue, the governor of Massachusetts,

Charlie Baker Charles Duane Baker Jr. (born November 13, 1956) is an American politician serving as the sixth president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 72nd governor of Massa ...

, commented:

His generosity, creativity, and long-standing commitment to do something very special for people of New England to celebrate our nation’s humble beginnings is wholeheartedly worthy of permanent remembrance.

References

External links

Conversations with Keith Lockhart, Episode 7: David Mugar, founder of the modern 4th of July
via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mugar, David G 1939 births 2022 deaths American people of Armenian descent People from Greater Boston Philanthropists from Massachusetts Babson College alumni American chairpersons of corporations American chief executives of food industry companies Trustees of museums People from Belmont, Massachusetts