A self-educated son of the Great Depression, Edward E. Lanctot helped start the True Value hardware chain and brought modern advertising and consolidation to what had previously been a mom-and-pop industry.
Unable to pursue formal education after high school, Mr. Lanctot found a job in his Minnesota hometown with a hardware wholesaler named John Cotter. The two became trusted friends, and so when Mr. Lanctot was discharged from the Army in 1946, he followed Cotter to Chicago to help get a tiny hardware company off the ground.
Mr. Lanctot, 84, died of complications from a stroke Thursday, Oct. 30, in Resurrection Nursing and Rehab Center in Park Ridge.
Mr. Lanctot and Cotter introduced a new idea: to band independent hardware retailers into a cooperative, with each store contributing $1,500 in dues.
They “didn’t have the money,” said Dan Cotter, the son of John Cotter who went on to become CEO of the company. “With the co-ops, the profit would go back to the stores, and that caught the interest of the hardware stores.”
The timing was just right. With the end of World War II, previously rationed hardware goods enjoyed booming demand.
By the time Mr. Lanctot retired in 1989, True Value had roughly 7,000 stores and had changed how Americans viewed hardware stores.
“Hardware stores used to be small little dark stores that sold just nuts and bolts, and hammers and tools,” Dan Cotter said.
While Mr. Lanctot’s career spanned the growth and consolidation of hardware stores, it also saw the weakening of the business. Today there are only about 5,000 True Value outlets. Mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot now dominate the business.
Mr. Lanctot’s family describes a man who loved work.
“He loved the relationships, he loved the personalities in the advertising business,” said his son, Thomas.
A devout Catholic, Mr. Lanctot rose in his Park Ridge home by 5 a.m., attended mass at about 6, and started work before the clock struck 7, his wife of 51 years, Patricia Lanctot, said.
Mr. Lanctot harbored passions outside of the workplace, too.
He loved a good meal at a good restaurant, his son said.
And he loved sports. Mr. Lanctot would go to the old Soldier Field and watch his favorite football team, the Bears, from the perch of a skybox. The Cubs also captured his loyalties.
At True Value, Mr. Lanctot’s mark was in advertising.
He started the advertising part of the business answering phones and opening letters. While Cotter was out working deals, Mr. Lanctot stayed in the East Illinois Street office, introducing direct mail and celebrity sponsorship to an industry that had previously relied on word of mouth.
Mr. Lanctot recruited such personalities as Roy Leonard, Pat Summerall, Harry Caray and Wally Phillips to speak for the chain.
Other survivors include another son, John; and six grandchildren. Mass will be said at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Paul of the Cross Church, 320 S. Washington St., Park Ridge.
