Texas Roadhouse founder and CEO Kent Taylor committed suicide after grappling with “unbearable” long-term symptoms of COVID-19, the company said.
Taylor, 65, took his own life Thursday, the restaurant chain said in a statement.
The statement said that Taylor had been experiencing post-coronavirus symptoms that had grown worse — including severe tinnitus, or ringing in the ear.
“Our community and the restaurant industry lost a legend and the Taylor family lost a wonderful son, father and grandad,” said a joint statement from the company and family obtained by CNN.
“Kent battled and fought hard like the former track champion that he was, but the suffering that greatly intensified in recent days became unbearable,” the statement said, according to McClatchy News.
Taylor had forfeited his salary from March 2020 through the rest of the year to allow the funds to go to help frontline restaurant employees during the pandemic.
“We will miss you, Kent. Because of you and your dream of Texas Roadhouse, we get to say we love our jobs every day,” the company wrote in a tribute on Facebook.