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It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading In they exchanged this stock for stock in the company as a whole. Penney was president of the company until , chairman of the board of directors from to , and honorary chairman of the board from to By the time of his death on February 12, , he had created a vast corporate empire.
Penney second only to Sears, Roebuck and Co. All 50, employees, or "associates" as Penney called them, shared in the profits. Penney liked being called "The Man with a Thousand Partners, " a phrase he used in the title of an autobiography.
He claimed that "the ethical means by which my business associates and I have made money is more important than the fact that we have achieved business success. After leaving the presidency of the company in , Penney spent more time on his outside interests.
One was cattle breeding. He ran a acre farm in New York state from to raising purebred Guernsey dairy cattle. He operated another farm in New York state and eight or nine farms in Missouri. Penney was also involved with many charitable and religious endeavors and was a prodigious speaker.
He founded a home for retired religious workers in Florida in memory of his parents. Although he had only a limited education, he was the recipient of 17 honorary degrees and many other honors, awards, and citations.
During his 95 years, Penney was married three times and had five children and nine grandchildren. His first wife died in , and in he married Mary Hortense Kimball. She died in after bearing a son, Kimball. Three years later, in , he married Caroline B. Autenrieth, who bore two daughters, Mary Frances and Carol. Penney's rise to fame and fortune was not an unmarred success story.
A major financial disaster struck in the stock market crash. Then came stunning news from his doctor. The TB that had claimed his father's life was now threatening him. The best thing for him was to move to a drier climate. So he moved to Colorado, buying a butcher shop in Longmont. That business hit hard times when he refused to give free liquor to his biggest client.
Then two significant things happened to J. He met a man who got him back into the dry goods business, and he met a woman who stole his heart. The business, called "The Golden Rule Store," gave him an exciting new commercial concept. The woman, named Berta, consented to marry him. Guided by the love of his new wife and the Golden Rule principle, the inspired young businessman began a journey that would take him to undreamed of success.
After clerking in one store, he helped a partner start a new store, and eventually, he bought a Golden Rule store of his own in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in While he recognized that the Golden Rule was a "slogan of good publicity value," his also found it "a poignant link with my father's and my mother's ideals and injunctions. He was just 26 when he bought that first store, in a mining town with a population of about 1, The company store and the 21 saloons in town offered credit, but Penney's store was cash-only.
He felt he served the community better by keeping them from becoming indebted. Within five years, Penney opened two more stores, then three more. There were more than 30 within that first decade. Penney followed a training strategy that allowed managers to become part owners and then purchase their own stores.
That's what his bosses had done for him, and now he returned the favor to others. Not only did this contribute to company morale, it allowed for the steady expansion of a chain of stores that held to Penney's original principles. The business incorporated in as J. Penney and Company, Inc. The seventh principle was "To test our every policy, method, and act in this wise: 'Does it square with what is right and just?
But Penney's own fortunes were not so bright. While the company prospered, he lost a bundle that he had invested in banks and real estate. That's what put him in the Michigan sanitarium in In the years following his epiphany in that hospital chapel, Penney spoke often of that experience. He talked about the mistakes he made in trusting success rather than God.
Privately, he mentioned his desire to be baptized and to join a church, but he put off those commitments until and His financial fortunes began to be restored in the mids. As that happened, he renewed his support of various charities, putting millions of dollars into the Penney Retirement Community in Penney Farms, Florida, Christian Herald magazine, and more than other organizations ministering in the United States and around the world.
He lived and served until he was 95, frequently sharing a Bible verse he had memorized as a child and claimed as his favorite: "I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Prove me, O Lord, and try me. Test my heart and my mind. For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I will walk in faithfulness to you" Psalms We are at home here.
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