HAMPTON -- David T. Della Penta, president and chief operating officer of Fisher Scientific International Inc., will retire at the end of 2006, the company announced this week.

Della Penta will continue to be responsible for all of the company's operating activities until his retirement. Company officials said they would make any additional announcements concerning succession plans later this year.

Della Penta joined Fisher in his current role in April 1998 and he led the company in more than doubling its annual revenues.

Fisher Scientific International Inc. (NYSE: FSH) is a leading provider of products and services to the scientific community ranging from beakers to Bunsen burners. The company, with corporate headquarters at Liberty Lane in Hampton, is one of the world's leading wholesale distributors of scientific equipment and instruments. Fisher sells more than 600,000 products and services online and through catalogs, distribution centers, and sales offices to more than 350,000 customers worldwide.

Della Penta is a 1969 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. His biography includes working two jobs during weekends and school vacations to attend RIT. The business graduate once worked as a crane operator in a steel mill during the day and at his father's neighborhood restaurant in Schenectady, N.Y., at night.

Fisher Scientific grew significantly under Della Penta's leadership. Since 1998, revenues increased from $2.25 billion to an estimated $5.5 billion in 2005. Fisher this year acquired Apogent Technologies, a Portsmouth-based company that designs, manufactures and sells laboratory, life science and diagnostic products, used in more than 150,000 laboratories worldwide.

Della Penta previously served as president of Nalge Nunc International Corporation, a subsidiary of Sybron International Corporation (the former name of Apogent.

Della Penta lives with his wife, Karen, in the Seacoast of New Hampshire.

Founded in 1902, Fisher Scientific is a FORTUNE 500 company and a component of the S&P 500 Index. Fisher employs approximately 17,500 people worldwide. For more information on Fisher, visit the company's Web site at www.fisherscientific.com.