1937:

Vancouver mourns the loss of businessman, philanthropist, and “Merchant Prince” Charles Woodward, founder of Woodward’s Department Stores, at the age of 84.

“Charles Woodward, who would have been 85 in July, died at 4 o’clock this morning in the General Hospital after an illness of six weeks,” the Vancouver Province reports. “His death was not unexpected, as he had been sinking for some days.”

Woodward, whose beginnings in business coincided with the early development of Vancouver, opened his first store in 1891 at the corner of Main and Georgia (known at that time as Westminster and Harris streets), and, by 1912, he was a millionaire.

Despite aspirations of retiring, the paper reports, “the years that followed found him early in his office, often half an hour before his 1200 employees were on the premises. And 6 o’clock and 6:30 found him still in his office, consulting with his managers on the results of the day and laying plans for the results of the next.”

“Mr. Woodward was one of the builders of our commercial world,” laments Mayor G. C. Miller. “He was one of those whose pioneering efforts assisted immeasurably in the growth of this city during its earlier years. In his death Vancouver has suffered a distinct loss.”

 

IMAGE: The Woodward’s Beacon, circa 1938. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.