Target founder Douglas Dayton dies at 88

MINNEAPOLIS -- Douglas Dayton, who led the transformation of a family department store into retailing giant Target Corp., has died at the age of 88.

Dayton's wife, Wendy Dayton, said the resident of Wayzata, Minn., died Friday after a long battle with cancer.

Dayton was the youngest of George Nelson Dayton's five sons who took over the family's Minneapolis department store from their father in 1948. Douglas Dayton started working in the family business after serving in the Army in Europe during World War II, where he received a Purple Heart.

Dayton sensed the threat of discount retailers such as Kmart. In 1960, he became the first president of Target, and within two years, the company had opened four Target stores in the Twin Cities suburbs.

According to an obituary prepared by his family, Dayton left the Target presidency in 1968 and returned to run the Dayton-Hudson department store parent company.

That business eventually was consolidated into Target Corp. The company has expanded nationally and into Canada, and is now ranked No. 36 on the Fortune 500.