Michael Bronfein was a connector.

The Randallstown native and CEO of the Towson-based cannabis company Curio Wellness had a contact list full of powerful politicians, company executives and deep-pocketed investors. He knew just about as many of them as he knew community activists, local officials and nonprofit leaders — and he was always working to get them in the same room, friends and colleagues said.

“His impact was greater than just him as a businessman being a successful entrepreneur,” said the Rev. Alvin C. Hathaway, a longtime friend and community partner. “His impact was that he was able to sensitize people with great wealth to invest with him in community-based activities and ideas.”

Once, Bronfein called Hathaway and asked him to come meet a friend from Virginia — and the minister only learned it was U.S. Sen. Mark Warner when he walked into the room. Bronfein helped secure Warner’s support to designate the former Public School 103 in Upton, where Thurgood Marshall was a student for six years, as a national historic site, Hathaway said.

That was just one story of dozens, he said. Bronfein was always working to support his community in some way, his friend said, whether it was through his own funds and businesses or through his relationships with others.

“Right now, what you see is so much of the language is pitting one group against the other,” Hathaway said. “He was just the opposite. He was always bringing people together, and I think we need that kind of image and that kind of legacy to grow if our community is going to thrive and survive.”

Bronfein, whose work in politics, health care, finance and the arts made him a well-known figure in Baltimore and Maryland, died last Wednesday in Florida. He was 70.

Bronfein had an early knack for entrepreneurship and hard work, friends and family told The Baltimore Sun in a 2002 profile. As a teenager, he worked as a butcher at his uncle’s supermarket, balancing his job with his interest in motorcycles and dates with his high school sweetheart, Jessica. He went on to earn an accounting degree from the University of Baltimore, according to his LinkedIn.

He became a supervisor at the supermarket, crediting his family with teaching him the difference between a businessperson and a merchant.

“Everything they did, they thought about how you build your business, maintain your business and grow your business through the eyes of the customer,” Bronfein said in a 2023 interview with the Dealmakers podcast. “That was a real gift, because everything I do is focused on: How do we delight the customer in a way that’s more advantageous than our competitor?”

While observing his uncle handling business meetings and talking to executives, Bronfein decided he wanted to be a CEO and blaze his own trail, he said. He briefly opened his own supermarket in the D.C. area in 1980, according to his LinkedIn.

The same year, he partnered with his pharmacist brother-in-law to found the drugstore chain NeighborCare, which primarily serviced medical centers and nursing homes. He was a part-time CEO during the chain’s early years, working at the same time as a senior vice president at Signet Banking Corp.

He left banking in 1991 to lead NeighborCare full time. Four years later, he unveiled NeighborWare, a software company supporting the chain and aiming to eliminate cumbersome pharmacy paperwork.

Bronfein also spent these years growing his political influence, serving as campaign finance chairman for former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. He also befriended Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, and the two became golf buddies, The Sun reported.

In 1994, he was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Bronfein continued building his business resume over time, founding the private equity firm Sterling Partners and the nursing home-focused Remedi SeniorCare Pharmacy. He also managed RLC Capital Management, among other ventures.

“I find creating businesses with competitive advantage and great people just a lot of fun, and so it’s really kind of both my vocation and my avocation,” Bronfein said in the podcast interview.

Bronfein founded Curio Wellness in 2014 with his daughter, Wendy, who first approached him with the idea. The company is the grower behind the dispensary chain Far & Dotter, and business has boomed since Maryland legalized marijuana for recreational use. His two other children, Rebecca and David, are also now involved in the company.

Anthony Darby met Bronfein at a business event in 2016 after deciding to enter the Maryland cannabis market. Darby noticed right away that the entrepreneur was a “different thinker” — someone who saw potential and embraced innovation.

Bronfein became a mentor to Darby. After the latter sold his business in 2022, Bronfein asked him to help Far & Dotter’s retail expansion operations. He came to know him not only as a smart, straightforward businessman who is “willing to move mountains and oceans” to get something done, but also as a friend who enjoyed McDonald’s ice cream cones and ketchup with his steak.

He learned from him to be methodical in planning, and to hold the same high expectations for yourself that you have of others.

“I never saw Michael do anything out of character behind closed doors that he wouldn’t do in public,” Darby said. “He would have tough conversations in public, in front of people, and not everyone appreciated that. But he just was who he was. He was authentic.”

Outside of work, Bronfein was also heavily involved in his community, serving on the boards of several nonprofits. He was chairman of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and served on the advisory boards of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University and the Harvard Medical School.

He has served on the board of the Signal 13 Foundation, which provides financial assistance to Baltimore law enforcement officers experiencing hardship, since 2019. Last year, he helped raise $50,000 to host an award ceremony for city police at the Hippodrome.

“He didn’t need anything more to do, and he took it upon himself because he cared very much that they had an event worthy of of what they do for a living,” said Nancy Hinds, the CEO of the foundation.

Bronfein was also a longtime board member of the Greater Baltimore Committee, a coalition of business leaders supporting economic development. Mark Anthony Thomas, the president and CEO of the organization, described Bronfein as an active board member, an accessible mentor and an “anchor in the business community.”

“At every inflection point in every major decision, I could call on him as either a confidant or a trusted voice,” Thomas said.

Services are planned for noon on Tuesday, Jan. 27 at Sol Levinson’s Chapel.

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