Douglas Dayton, who led the transformation of the family’s Dayton Hudson department store business into the discount giant Target, died at the age of 88. Dayton passed away Friday after a long battle with cancer.
Dayton's wife, Wendy Dayton, confirmed his death to the Associated Press on Sunday.
Douglas James Dayton was the youngest of George Nelson Dayton's five sons who all took over the family's downtown Minneapolis department store from their father in 1948. After receiving a Purple Heart while serving in an Army infantry division in Europe during World War II, Dayton began working for his family’s business as a store manager. In 1960, he became the first president of Target, a new concept. Four Target stores opened within two years in the Twin Cities suburbs.
According to an obituary prepared by his family, Douglas Dayton left the Target presidency in 1968 and returned to help run the Dayton-Hudson department store parent company. That business eventually was consolidated into Target Corp. Most of the former Dayton's department stores in Minnesota were sold to Macy's.
Dayton left the company in 1974 and formed a venture capital firm. He retired in 1994 but remained active in a number of charitable and philanthropic groups.
“He and his brothers shared a common vision for improvement to the community, and to give back what the community had given them,” Wendy Dayton said Sunday. His philanthropic efforts focused on expanding access to education and social justice, and to preservation of the arts and nature.
