William Thomas Dillard (September 2, 1914 – February 8, 2002) was an American businessman. He was the founder of the Dillard's Department Stores chain.

Early life

Dillard was born on September 2, 1914, to Thomas J. Dillard and Hattie Mae Gibson Dillard, both grocers.''Encyclopedia of Arkansas''
/ref> At 12 years old, Dillard began working for his father who owned a local general store. Dillard found employment with

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

& Roebuck Company where he gained experience in retail business. He graduated from the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

with a degree in Business Administration and earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

.Leslie Kaufman
William T. Dillard, Founder Of a Retail Chain, Dies at 87
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', February 09, 2002 He was a member of the

Lambda Chi Alpha Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly known as Lambda Chi, is a college fraternity in North America which was founded at Boston University in 1909. It is one of the largest social fraternities in North America, with more than 300,000 lifetime members a ...

fraternity.

Career

Dillard returned to Arkansas and opened his first retail store in 1938 in the town of

Nashville, Arkansas Nashville is a city in Howard County, Arkansas, Howard County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 4,627 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The estimated population in 2018 was 4,425. The city is the county seat of Howard Count ...

, after he borrowed US$8,000 from his father to sign the lease and install shelves, and stocking those shelves with merchandise supplied on generous credit, extended on the basis of wholesalers' long dealings with his father. In 1948, he sold his Nashville store and opened stores in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, followed by more stores across the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. In 1964, he opened his first store in a mall in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, and foreshadowed the boom of malls. In 1965, he opened more stores in malls in

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

, and

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

. He used computerized checkouts to track inventory. By the end of the 20th century, Dillard's Department Stores was the third largest

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

chain in the United States. He retired in 1998. His eldest son, William T. Dillard II, took over as CEO and his second son, Alex Dillard, as president. His daughters, Drue Corbusier and Denise Mahaffy, and a third son, Mike Dillard, serve as vice presidents.

Personal life and death

Dillard married Alexa Latimer on June 9, 1940, and they had five children. He was an

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

, and a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

. He died on February 8, 2002, at his home in

at the age of 87. In February 2020, the

announced the naming of William Dillard Accounting Department in honor of his legacy.

References

https://news.uark.edu/articles/52209/accounting-department-named-for-william-dillard {{DEFAULTSORT:Dillard, William T 1914 births 2002 deaths People from Howard County, Arkansas University of Arkansas alumni Columbia Business School alumni American businesspeople in retailing 20th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Arkansas Arkansas Republicans 20th-century American Episcopalians