Bruce Nordstrom, the retail executive who helped expand his family’s Pacific Northwest department store chain into an upscale national brand, has died.
As NBC News reports, Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc. said its former chairman died at his home on May 18. He was 90. “Our dad leaves a powerful legacy as a legendary business leader, a generous community citizen and a loyal friend,” said a statement from his sons, Nordstrom CEO Erik Nordstrom and Pete Nordstrom, the company’s president.
The chain traces its roots back to a Seattle shoe store opened by Swedish immigrant John Nordstrom and a partner in 1901. Bruce Nordstrom and other members of the third generation took leadership reins in 1968.
Together with his cousins, Jim and John Nordstrom, and their friend and business partner John A. “Jack” McMillan, Bruce was a core member of Nordstrom’s third generation leadership team. They were known as the “core four,” and together, they took the company public in 1971 and led their national expansion into California, the Midwest and the East Coast. Two years later, annual sales surpassed $100 million, and the company was recognized as the largest volume fashion specialty store on the West Coast.
In 1973, the first Nordstrom Rack opened as a clearance center in the lower level of the downtown Seattle Nordstrom store. The first standalone Nordstrom Rack opened in 1983 in Clackamas, Oregon. As Nordstrom expanded to other parts of the country, Nordstrom Rack stores followed.
Bruce Nordstrom retired from his executive role in 1995 as the third generation handed over leadership to the fourth – his sons Pete and Erik Nordstrom, who took the store into the digital age with Nordstrom.com. He retired as chairman of Nordstrom’s board of directors in 2006.
He was one of several Nordstrom family members who in 2017 made a push to take the company private, proposing to buy out the 70% of the department store’s stock they didn’t already own. Those talks failed in 2018 but earlier this year, his sons started another series of buyout negotiations.
In addition to two sons, Nordstrom’s survivors include his wife, Jeannie, his sister and fellow philanthropist Anne Gittinger, and seven grandchildren.
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