Williams-Sonoma Former Ceo Dies

W. Howard Lester, chairman emeritus of Williams-Sonoma Inc. (San Francisco), died November 15 from cancer at his home in Indian Wells, Calif. Lester had a 32-year career with the gourmet-cookware retailer. In 1978, he purchased the company with a partner and during his tenure as ceo and later as chairman, he took Williams-Sonoma public and expanded it from four to 600 stores and more than $3.4 billion in sales.

“Howard was a shopkeeper at heart,” Chuck Williams, founder and director emeritus of Williams-Sonoma, said in the statement. “More importantly he has been my friend for over 30 years, and I will miss him.”

In 2006, Lester took over the company again after it cut its sales forecast because of weaker growth at its Pottery Barn chain. By the time he retired in May, the company had posted a 17 percent increase in sales for the first quarter.

Lester was born on Aug. 14, 1935, in Durant, Okla. He served in U.S. Army counterintelligence in the 1950s before starting his career selling typewriters for International Business Machines Corp. in 1958. During his career, he founded several companies, including Coley/Lester Employment Agency and Centurex Corp., a banking-software supplier.

He is survived by his wife, Mary, three children and five grandchildren.