Dallas Troutman, 76, Emporium store chain founder dies
wazzzy
Dallas Troutman, who began his retail sales career at the age of 13 in
his native Missouri and went on to found a chain of 35 department
stores in Oregon, Washington and California, has died at the age of
76.
A daughter, Joy DeMoss, said Troutman died "peacefully in his sleep"
on Tuesday at a San Diego hospital, where he underwent heart surgery
last week.
"He had a love of family that was above and beyond all else," DeMoss
said. "His business was important to him, but he was always there for
members of his family. His passing leaves a big hole in our lives."
Like many other locally owned department stores, the Eugene-based
chain of Troutman's Emporium stores faced insurmountable competition
from huge national chains and big-box discount stores in its later
years. Troutman filed for bankruptcy in late 2002 and closed the
firm's last four stores early in 2004.
"If you look at changes in retail, there used to be hundreds of
independent locally owned stores, but so many had to consolidate to
survive," DeMoss said. "The big just kept getting bigger, and it
became so much more difficult to compete - you either had to become
really huge or fill some small niche market to survive."
advertisement Joe Sneddon, who served as the company's chief financial
officer from 1979 to 2002, calls Troutman "a great business leader and
a real contributor to the community."
"He was a strong independent retailer, one of the last," Sneddon said.
"He gave a lot to his community, and he encouraged his employees to
give."
Although he was not Roman Catholic, Troutman gave generously to Marist
High School "because he had a strong belief in their family values,"
DeMoss said.
Other favorite charities included the Children's Miracle Network,
University of Oregon and SCAR/Jasper Mountain, a residential treatment
center for badly abused children.
"He would go out and personally measure all the kids for coats and
shoes," niece Diana Troutman Welt recalls.
Troutman was "a tremendous friend" to the Children's Miracle Network,
said Casey Woodard, head of the Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation
in Eugene. "We will forever be indebted to him for his compassionate
investment in community health care."
Troutman seemed destined for a retail career from childhood, family
members agree. Born in Clay Summit, Mo., to Robert and Lorah Perkins
Troutman on Oct. 25, 1930, he watched his family struggle to make ends
meet during the Great Depression.
"His parents were very poor, and he was hard-working," Welt said.
"He went to work at Sobel's Men's Store when he was 13 - he told them
he was of (legal) age to work."
The family moved to Springfield in the mid-1940s, where Troutman
worked downtown at Alexander's Department Store, "sweeping sidewalks,
cleaning up and some sales," Welt said. He graduated from Springfield
Union High School in 1948.
After a couple of retail stints in Hermiston and North Bend, he went
into business for himself, opening his first Emporium outlet in North
Bend in 1955; a second followed at the Pony Village Mall in 1963. He
entered the Eugene market with a store at Willamette Plaza in south
Eugene in 1968.
Despite the difficulties associated with losing his business -
including a successful lawsuit by employees for greater severance pay
- Troutman cared deeply about the people who worked for him and always
gave young people a special chance, Welt said.
"Almost all of the kids in the family started out working in the
stores, and we really learned how to work," she said. "I'm sorry that
my boys didn't get a chance to start at the Emporium."
Troutman leaves six children and four stepchildren.