Judi Hofer Dies in Portland

Judi Hofer, whose long career with May Department Stores included two stints as head of Meier & Frank and one as ceo of Famous-Barr, died last weekend. She was 73.

She had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years and was recently diagnosed with cancer.

She went to work in the stock room of a Meier & Frank store in 1955 at 15 (lying about her age to get the job) and became president and ceo of that operation in 1981.

She moved to St. Louis to run Famous Barr in 1986, but returned to Portland and Meier & Frank in 1988.

Despite her business success, her pioneering role as a female executive did not open all doors. She said in a 1991 interview with The Oregonian that she could not entertain corporate guests at Portland’s exclusive Waverley Country Club because single women could not be members.

She moved again, to Boston in 1996 to manage the Filene’s division of May Co., and back to St. Louis in 2000, in a corporate role overseeing May’s merchandising operations. She retired in 2002.

Hofer “contributed mightily to May’s success,” said David Farrell, May’s ceo from 1979 to 1998. “She was a gifted and talented executive and a very good merchant.”