Being the great-nephew of the owner of Chas. A. Stevens & Co. helped John W. Sheldon land a job after college with that women’s apparel retailer, but it didn’t serve him as well during the Great Depression.
“They actually fired him during the Depression because they said they had other people who needed the money more,” said his son, Edward “Ted” Sheldon, a retired Chicago Tribune retail advertising sales manager.
Mr. Sheldon found a job working in the City of Chicago’s Welfare Department, where he was considered a valuable employee because he had access to a car–his grandfather’s Lincoln–and could make the rounds in the city as a case manager.
After the economy began to improve, he was rehired as a junior buyer by Chas. A. Stevens & Co., a family-owned business started in 1888. From its first store on State Street, it became a major retailer in the Chicago area with five stores. Mr. Sheldon’s grandfather was John H. Stevens, one of four brothers of the founder.
Mr. Sheldon, 93, formerly of Highland Park, retired chairman of the former store chain, died of complications from prostate cancer, Friday, August 27, at home in Florida. He had retired in 1975, five years after the company was sold to Hart, Schaffner & Marx.
Mr. Sheldon became president of Chas. A. Stevens in 1957. That year, he also became chairman of the State Street Council during the Loop avenue’s glory days, when it was considered the center of Chicago.
“I admired and respected him. John was a gentleman and an outstanding business executive” said Tip Lifvendahl, retired president and publisher of the Orlando Sentinel and former general manager of the Chicago Tribune. The store was a regular advertiser in the Tribune. “I knew him from a business point of view, not only as an advertiser but of equal importance was his involvement in the community.
“John had a great love for the City of Chicago and worked diligently to make it an even better city. He served on the boards of many non-profit organizations and gave time to those causes. Sometimes executives don’t do that, but he did. He gave freely and openly of his time, effort and energy. He earned the respect of his peers, employees and competitors, which is not an easy accomplishment.”
He was on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; the National Boulevard Bank of Chicago; the Boy Scouts Council; and the Chicago Central Area Committee, a group composed of business leaders seeking to improve the downtown area in the 1960s.
He and his wife adopted their two children from the Cradle Society in Evanston, where he also was on the board.
In 1979 Mr. Sheldon received a plaque for 44 years of service to the State Street Council.
Mr. Sheldon was born and raised in Glencoe and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1932. His mother then took him on a trip around the world, so that he could give travelogues at community gatherings.
He joined Stevens when he returned to the Chicago area and in 1940 married Marjorie Mercer, who was in sales at the State Street store.
During World War II, Mr. Sheldon served in the Naval Reserves in Milwaukee, testing submarines built in nearby Sheboygan. “They had to make sure they went down and stayed down,” his son said.
After the war, he returned to Stevens as vice president.
He was an avid tennis player when younger, but as an adult he developed shoulder trouble and switched to golf, “which he loved,” his son said.
Other survivors include his wife; a daughter, Barbara Putz; a sister, Elizabeth Wilson Hinchliff; six granddaughters; and two great-grandchildren.
Plans for a service in Skokie are pending.
