Weeks after the company celebrated 50 years of business, Subway announced one of its co-founders Fred DeLuca died Monday evening, two years after he was diagnosed with Leukemia. He was 67 years old.

DeLuca opened his first sandwich shop in Connecticut in 1965 with his business partner Peter Buck when DeLuca was only 17 years old. By 1974 the two owned and operated 16 shops throughout the state. Soon after the owners began franchising, launching the SUBWAY brand which has growth to include more than 37,000 locations around the world.