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Bruce Alva Gimbel (July 28, 1913 – October 7, 1980) was an American businessman and president of the Gimbels department store.

Biography

Gimbel was born on July 28, 1913, to a Jewish family, the son of Alva (née Bernheimer) and Bernard Gimbel. He had four siblings: twins Peter Gimbel and David Gimbel; and twins Hope Gimbel and Caral Gimbel. His sister Hope was married and divorced from art collector David M. Solinger and mother of photographer Lynn Stern. His sister Caral was married and divorced from Edward Lasker, son of Albert Lasker; and baseball superstar Hank Greenberg before settling down with World War II hero Joseph M. Lebworth. In 1935, he graduated from Yale University. Gimbel ferried planes during World War II before working for the family company, the only child of Bernard to do so, as vice president of sales in 1946.

Career

Gimbel worked up through the ranks and in 1953, his father retired and he became president of Gimbels which had at the time over $300 million in sales 15 stores and 20,000 employees. Faced with declining sales at its downtown stores, he expanded the chain into the suburbs and using a newly established network of local buying offices in France, Italy, Spain, Germany and England, he stocked his stores with foreign manufactured copies of name brand merchandise. Both tactics worked for a time but facing the new economic reality, in 1965 he closed Saks Fifth Avenue's 34th street flagship store and soon after, in 1968, he forced his cousin, Adam Long Gimbel (husband of Sophie Gimbel), who operated the 31 store Saks Fifth Avenue chain, to retire. In 1972, he established a Gimbels store for $30 million on the Upper East Side thinking that he could capture the neighborhood's wealthy residents; the store was a failure. In July 1973, Gimbels was purchased for $205 million by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, the country's third-largest tobacco company. He retired in 1975. In 1986, the Gimbels brand was retired.

Personal life

Gimbel married twice: first to Doris Asiel with whom he had a son, Robert B. Gimbel, and then to Barbara Poulson with whom he had a son, John B. Gimbel. He also adopted a daughter, Judith C. Gimbel, who married architect Benjamin Mendelsund, with whom she had a daughter, Lisa Mendelsund, and a son, graphic artist Peter Mendelsund.

References

1. Who's who in Commerce and Industry. Vol. 14. 1965. p. 482.
2. ^ Ingham, John N. (June 14, 2005). Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders. Vol. 1. Greenwood Publishing. p. 462. ISBN 9780313239076.
3. ^ "How to Make Millions - Nobody But Nobody Knows How to do the Two Better than the Boss of plain Old Gimbels". Life. December 12, 1949.
4. ^ Bender, Marylin (August 15, 1975). "Gimbel Retires As Stores Head". New York Times.
5. "Deaths Lebworth, Caral Gimbel". New York Times. September 30, 2008.
6. Vogel, Carol (October 30, 1996). "David Solinger, 90, Art Collector And Whitney Museum President". New York Times.
7. Wadler, Joyce (May 15, 2002). "PUBLIC LIVES; Being Rich Is Grand; Getting Old Is Getting Old". New York Times.
8. "Deaths Lebworth, M. Joseph". New York Times. May 22, 2008.
9. ^ Grove, Martha (July 13, 1986). "Gimbels--Soon Just a Memory to Herald Square". Los Angeles Times.
10. Smith, Scott S. (November 27, 2013). "Bernard Gimbel, A Force Behind Thanksgiving Parade". Investor's Business Daily.
11. Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2014). World Clothing and Fashion: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Social Influence. Routledge. pp. 273–275. ISBN 9781315698045.
12. "Deaths - Meyer, Doris Asiel". New York Times. November 13, 2011.
13. "Despina Papazoglou Married to Robert B. Gimbel". New York Times. May 11, 1986.
14. "Miss Iselin Wed to John B. Gimbel". New York Times. October 21, 1991.
15. "Benjamin Mendelsund, Architect, 48". The New York Times. 1991-01-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
16. "Judith C. Gimbells Bride Of Benjamin Mendelsund". The New York Times. 1963-08-25. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
17. "Judith C. Gimbel Will Be Married Here in August; Daughter of Merchant Is Prospective Bride of Benjamin Mendelsund". The New York Times. 1963-07-16. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-13.

• 1913 births
• 1980 deaths
• 20th-century American Jews
• Gimbel family
• American retail chief executives
• 20th-century American businesspeople
• Yale University alumni