Sebastian Spering Kresge (1867–1966) was an American merchant and philanthropist. He was the founder of the discount mass-retailer S.S. Kresge Company, known as Kmart Corporation since 1977.
Born in Bald Mount, Pennsylvania, Kresge graduated from the Eastman Business College in 1889. He worked as a hardware store clerk 1889–92, and then as a traveling salesman for the variety store chain Frank Winfield Woolworth 1892–97. In 1897, Kresge and a partner purchased a J.G. McCrory a five and ten cent store in Memphis, Tennessee, adding a second store in downtown Detroit in 1898.
Kresge founded his own company in 1899 built around the downtown Detroit store, and gradually expanding to 85 stores. He incorporated the S.S. Kresge Corporation In 1912 and listed it on the New York Stock Exchange in 1918. Under his leadership, the company grew to 257 stores in 1924 and 597 by 1929.
In 1923, he started another new independent company, buying out Newark, New Jersey-based department store company L.S. Plaut & Co., and renaming it Kresge-Newark. Kresge retired from his companies in 1925.
Kresge established the Kresge Foundation in 1924, bequeathing the the foundation over $60 million by the time of his death. Numerous buildings and institutions across America bear the Kresge name.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Sebastian S. Kresge
Money alone cannot build character or transform evil into good. It cries for full partnership with leaders of character and good will who value good tools in the creation and enlargement of life for Man.
—Sebastian S. Kresge
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