Bruce Nordstrom, who along with three other members of the Nordstrom family turned a small chain of shoe stores in the Pacific Northwest into an international fashion retail giant with more than 150 locations worldwide, died Saturday at his home in Seattle. He was 90.
His death was confirmed by a company spokeswoman.
The grandson of John W. Nordstrom, the company’s Swedish immigrant founder, Mr. Nordstrom was part of the third generation of the family to run the company together, share power and make decisions by consensus – an unusual but successful Nordstrom tradition This day continues to this day.
He shared leadership with his cousins John N. Nordstrom and Jim Nordstrom, who were brothers, and Jack McMillan, who was married to their cousin Loyal Nordstrom.
Management by committee is considered a formula for business school disaster, but the Nordstrom family, starting with Bruce’s father Everett and Everett’s brothers Elmer and Lloyd, decided they would be more effective as co-leaders of the company, which was founded in 2010 could in 1901 in Seattle.
When Lloyd Nordstrom called the 30-year-old Bruce into his office in 1963 and named him president of the company, the younger Mr. Nordstrom accepted the post but soon decided he would emulate his father’s generation and share leadership with his three relatives .
“Obviously the arrangement worked out great,” Bruce Nordstrom wrote in his 2007 autobiography “Leave It Better Than You Found It.” “It was wonderful for her and it was wonderful for me because it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.”
Robert Spector, author of “The Nordstrom Way,” a 1996 book about the company’s vaunted reputation for customer service, noted that Bruce Nordstrom was “the nominal leader of the group.” But the company’s egalitarian system, in which each leader was responsible for an area of expertise, worked because of a combination of pride and humility, always putting the company first and each individual’s needs as a priority.
“Bruce was a very humble guy, but also a very proud guy,” Mr. Spector said in an interview for this obituary in 2019. “He was reserved and didn’t take himself too seriously. But he wanted to win.”
Starting with seven shoe stores in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, the family expanded the chain rapidly from the late 1970s through the 1980s, expanding into California and then across the country while adding a full line of clothing and accessories. What was once a regional shoe store chain with sales of less than $40 million grew into a retail giant that operated 182 stores in 28 states and offered online shopping in 30 countries with sales of more than $9 billion .
When the family opened a store in Southern California in 1978, Bruce Nordstrom and his cousins encountered a wave of skepticism about their planned growth. “There were some people at the time who said, ‘Why would you want to screw it up by opening there?’ In the Northwest you’re fine, but in California it’s a different, more demanding customer, “and you’re going to screw it up,” Mr. Nordstrom said in a 2018 interview with Footwear News.
Although mild-mannered, he was still an ambitious and determined leader whose reaction to that negativity only drove him to work harder, he said. “I enjoyed proving that we can really do something,” he said. “We evolved, moved and had success. The success gave us the confidence to keep going.”
Mr. Nordstrom acknowledged that there were occasional disagreements among the company’s executives. “We don’t always agree,” he told Footwear News, “but we vote when we have to make decisions.” Sometimes there can be smoke behind closed doors. But we are determined to find a solution. When we go out, we go out as one.”
Bruce Allen Nordstrom was born on October 1, 1933 in Seattle. His mother, Elizabeth (Jones) Nordstrom, known as Libby, was an accomplished singer who appeared on radio.
During World War II, at age 9, Bruce began working at the Nordstrom shoe store in downtown Seattle on Saturdays and summers. He swept floors and dismantled boxes for 25 cents an hour. He stood in line with the other employees to collect his wages and was proud to be a paid employee, he recalled in his memoirs.
He then earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington in Seattle, where most Nordstrom men graduated, and rowed for the school’s prestigious crew team. When he graduated college, he met Fran Wakeman, a freshman from Seattle, and after years of on-again, off-again romance, the couple married. They had three sons, Blake, Peter and Erik, all of whom worked for Nordstrom.
After graduating from college in 1955, Mr. Nordstrom enlisted in the Army and served for six months as a lieutenant at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. When he returned to Seattle, he began managing one of the company’s stores. His future in management was set.
Mr. Nordstrom retired as chief executive in 2006 but remained an important presence in the company’s stores. Forbes estimated his fortune at $1 billion this year.
Fran Nordstrom died in 1984. Four years later, Mr. Nordstrom married Jeannie O’Roark. His eldest son Blake died of cancer in 2019.
He is survived by his wife; his sons Peter and Erik, who continue to run the company; a sister, Anne Gittinger; and seven grandchildren.
Alex Traub contributed reporting.
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2024-05-19 23:54:42
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