Photo Credit: MorgueFile

Weeks after celebrating the company’s 50th anniversary, Subway co-founder Fred Deluca has died after a two-year leukemia battle. He was 67.

He founded Subway in 1965, as a means of paying for college tuition after graduating high school. The idea came from a family friend, Peter Buck, who was his co-founder and provided the $1,000 to start the business.

Today, it has over 44,000 chains in 110 countries.

The famous sandwich chain has received bad press recently, after long-term spokesperson Jared Fogle agreed to plead guilty to charges on child pornography and sex-with-minors. He accepted the charge in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.