MINNEAPOLIS — Bruce Dayton, the father of Minnesota’s governor and a key figure in building his family’s company into the massive retailing business that became Target Corp., has died. He was 97.

Dayton, who also donated tens of millions of dollars in gifts and endowments to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, died at his home surrounded by family on Friday, according to the governor’s spokesman, Matt Swenson.

Dayton was the father of Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and the last survivor of five brothers – all grandsons of The Dayton Co. founder George Draper Dayton – who expanded the company nationally from a single department store in downtown Minneapolis.

Those who knew him found Dayton direct in his views yet accommodating of other opinions, and someone with extraordinary business acuity and a dry sense of humor.

Born in Minneapolis in 1918, Bruce Bliss Dayton embraced the family’s retailing heritage, taking a job in the store’s merchandise receiving room in his early 20s and steadily climbing into the boardroom. Along with his brothers, Dayton helped grow the upscale Dayton’s department store and its discount offshoot, Target, into nationally known chains.

He was president around the time of the company’s initial public stock offering in 1967, and he later chaired the company’s board, according to a Target company chronology. Dayton stepped away from the business’ top ranks in 1983, ending 80 years of direct family involvement in one of Minnesota’s most storied companies.

David Brennan, who worked in the Dayton-Hudson corporate offices in the 1970s, said Dayton and his brother, Ken, took Target to great heights by differentiating it from other newer discounters Kmart and Wal-Mart.

“They were exceptionally innovative and calculated risk takers,” Brennan, now a professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, said Friday. “They exuded great confidence because of their innovativeness and their ability to stick with the plan.”

The Dayton family is no longer involved in Target Corp., and most of the former Dayton’s department stores in Minnesota are now operated by Macy’s.

Copy the Story Link