Biography
William T. Dillard was born on September 2, 1914 in Mineral Springs, Howard County, Arkansas. His parents Thomas and Hattie were farmers and merchants. Dillard found employment with Sears & Roebuck Company where he gained experience in retail business. He graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in Business Administration and earned a Master's Degree from Columbia University. He was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
He returned to Arkansas and opened his first retail store in 1938 in the town of Nashville, Arkansas after he borrowed US$8,000 from his father. In 1948, he sold his Nashville store and opened stores in Texas, followed by more stores across the Southern United States. In 1964, he opened his first store in a mall in Austin, Texas, and foreshadowed the boom of malls. In 1965, he opened more stores in malls in Little Rock, Arkansas and Tulsa, Oklahoma. He used computerized checkouts to track inventory. By the turn of the century, Dillard's Department Stores was the third largest department store chain in the United States. He retired in 1998. His eldest son, William Dillard II, took over as CEO and his second son, Alex Dillard, as President. His daughter, Drue Corbusier and Denise Mahaffy, and a third son, Mike Dillard, serve as Vice Presidents.
He married Alexa Latimer on June 9, 1940, and they had five children. He was an Episcopalian, and a Republican. He died at his home in Little Rock on February 8, 2002, at the age of 87.
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