Just over a year after its application was sent to the Department of Historic Resources, a historic marker recounting the life of Arthur Taubman was unveiled in Roanoke on Wednesday morning.
Taubman, a Star City resident who died in 1994, aided hundreds of Jews during World War II and was an international businessman, founding what is now Advance Auto Parts.
The Taubman name is easily recognizable in Roanoke, with the city’s art museum carrying the family name, as will Carilion Clinic’s new cancer center, to which the Taubman family donated $25 million.
In 1932, Arthur Taubman purchased three failing auto parts stores in Roanoke, pawning off personal items to do so. These stores became Advance Auto Parts, which today is a publicly traded company with more than 4,200 locations. He was also founding chairman of Alliance Tire and Rubber Co., which at one point was Israel’s top business exporter and created hundreds of jobs…