Bruce Nordstrom, a retail executive who helped transform his family’s Pacific Northwest department store operation into a high-end national brand, died.
Nordstrom Inc., based in Seattle, announced that its former chairman died on Saturday at his home. He was ninety.
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“Our dad leaves a powerful legacy as a legendary business leader, a generous community citizen, and a loyal friend,” stated his sons, Nordstrom CEO Erik Nordstrom and president Pete Nordstrom.
In 1901, Swedish immigrant John Nordstrom and a partner started a shoe store in Seattle, which became the foundation for the brand.
Bruce Nordstrom and other members of the third generation assumed leadership in 1968. They went public in 1971 and expanded the company’s footprint across the United States, as well as opening Nordstrom Rack locations at reduced prices.
Bruce Nordstrom retired from his management position in 1995, as the third generation passed leadership to the fourth. He stepped down as chairman of Nordstrom’s board of directors in 2006.
He was one of several Nordstrom family members that proposed taking the company private in 2017, offering to buy out 70% of the department store’s stock that they did not already hold. Those talks failed in 2018, but earlier this year, his sons began a new round of buyout negotiations.
His wife Jeannie, sister and fellow philanthropist Anne Gittinger, and seven grandchildren survive Nordstrom in addition to his two sons.
