The power of decision making, along with grit and determination, is what propels many born leaders. The same could be said of Bruce Nordstrom, the longtime president of the Nordstrom department store chain, who decided to continue the family tradition of joint corporate governance. He understood teamwork from an early age, taking pride in being a company staff member and lining up with fellow workers to receive his hard-won paycheck at the tender age of nine. Two decades later, the young sweeper became president of the retail chain, still playing to win and proving the staying power of his billion-dollar family empire.
Nancy Schuster’s decision to transform a childhood hobby into a career changed her life. She went from a self-described housewife to a staunch self-advocate, participating in crossword tournaments and selling her puzzles to newsstand magazines. And that was before assuming the role of New York Times crossword editor. A lesson learned from a tense racial encounter took civil rights leader James Lawson Jr. on a self-directed journey to India, where Gandhi’s approach helped him find “a better way” to combat social justice issues and impart those lessons to others. William Anders’s determination to use color film to capture the view of Earth while orbiting the moon led to the awe-inspiring “Earthrise” photo, injecting much-needed hope into a fraught political era.
Bruce Nordstrom
Ambitious retailer managed by consensus
By age nine, Bruce Nordstrom was sweeping floors for 25 cents an hour at the shoe retailing company founded by his grandfather, a Swedish immigrant, in 1901. He rose to president at age 30 in 1963. Instead of imposing his will, the young president chose to share leadership with two cousins and an in-law. When they disagreed, matters were settled quietly by a vote behind closed doors. Although it sounded like a recipe for muddle, consensus paid off. Sales soared to over $9 billion from less than $40 million as the company expanded from a small chain in the Pacific Northwest into an international retailer of fashion, including clothing and accessories as well as shoes.
New York TimesTIMEAkira Endo
Japanese biochemist pioneered statins
Endo’s patience—and fascination with fungi—produced a research breakthrough that has prolonged life for millions of people susceptible to heart disease. While working for a Japanese pharmaceutical firm in the early 1970s, he grew more than 6,000 fungi in search of a substance that could block an enzyme involved in the production of artery-clogging cholesterol. In 1973, he found a blue mold that did the trick. That helped lead to a class of drugs known as statins. Endo won the Lasker Award, the most prestigious prize in medicine after the Nobel. “I dreamed of becoming a doctor as a child,” he said, “but realized a new horizon as people who are not doctors can save people’s lives.”
Washington PostNew York TimesDebby Lee Cohen
Artist rallied children to reduce plastic waste
Cohen’s daughter Anna, then in second grade, pointed out a connection between throwaway foam lunch trays at school and global warming. Cohen, a maker of puppets and stage props, saw a perfect teaching moment for budding activists. She led a campaign by schoolchildren against the wasteful use of plastics in lunch programs. Cohen helped develop compostable lunch trays and persuade New York City and state officials to ban throwaways at public schools. Cohen, who died of colon cancer at age 64, wanted her funeral to be zero-waste too. She was wrapped in an antique French cotton sheet and placed on a recycled board.
New York TimesVillage PreservationLynn Conway
Microchip pioneer battled for transgender rights
Conway helped improve supercomputer designs and found ways to cram millions of circuits onto a microchip, making possible today’s laptops and smartphones. Yet she did not dare claim credit for her contributions for 30 years after her employer fired her in 1968 for deciding to undergo gender confirmation surgery. She kept her transition secret while working for the Defense Department and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. In the 1990s, she finally began acknowledging her past and campaigning for transgender rights. Fifty-two years after firing her, her former employer apologized. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers honored her with its Computer Pioneer Award in 2009.
New York TimesLos Angeles TimesJames M. Lawson Jr.
Civil rights leader taught nonviolent techniques
Lawson’s mother chided him at age ten after he slapped a White child who had shouted a racial slur. “What good did that do?” she asked. Was there no better way? He served 13 months in prison for resisting the military draft in the 1950s, traveled to India to learn Gandhi’s techniques for nonviolent protest, and became a Methodist minister. Martin Luther King Jr. recruited him to teach civil rights protesters how to endure taunts and deflect punches. He led sit-ins that helped integrate lunch counters and shops. Later in life, he campaigned for gay rights and comforted James Earl Ray, who had been convicted of assassinating King.
Los Angeles TimesWashington PostNancy Schuster
Crossword ace built and edited brainteasers
Many people toil over crosswords just for the fun and mental calisthenics. Schuster made a career of it after winning the first American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 1978. She began creating puzzles for magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, and created a crossword magazine, Superb Word Games. The New York Times hired her to test and edit its daily puzzles, and she did so until age 90. Born in the Bronx in New York City, she learned words by watching her father fill out crosswords. Later, she studied chemistry and worked in a research lab. Faced with the clue of “Greek festival maidens with baskets on their heads,” she found the answer—canephori, of course.
New York TimesTexarkana GazetteTony O’Reilly
Former Heinz CEO supported Irish causes
His charisma and flair for lavish parties invited comparisons with the Kennedys and Jay Gatsby. Born in Ireland, O’Reilly was a rugby star and ace marketer of butter before becoming CEO of H. J. Heinz (now part of Kraft Heinz) in 1979. Over nearly two decades, he expanded the Pittsburgh-based maker of ketchup and pickles globally. O’Reilly also owned Irish newspapers and Waterford Wedgwood, a maker of crystal glasses and bone china. His legacy includes the Ireland Funds, a charity he cofounded. It supports peace, education, and community development in Ireland and other countries.
TelegraphPittsburgh Post-Gazette“His charisma and flair for lavish parties invited comparisons with the Kennedys and Jay Gatsby.”
Linda Patterson “Pat” Rolfe
Music publishing executive broke glass ceiling
Nashville songwriters tended to rely on men for music publishing services until Rolfe arrived on the scene. She moved to Nashville in 1964 after graduating from high school in Waverly, Tennessee. At the publishing company Hill & Range, her mentors included Lamar Fike, a member of Elvis Presley’s entourage. She also worked with stars including Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, and Bill Monroe. In 1972, she became one of the first women to lead a major music publishing company when she was promoted to general manager of Hill & Range. Later, Rolfe helped found a not for profit that supports women in the Nashville music business.
BillboardTennesseanFumihiko Maki
Architect mastered subtle details
A critic likened one of Maki’s rooflines to a “hovering spaceship.” But the Japanese architect was better known for buildings that did not call attention to themselves and instead blended subtly into their urban environments. His famous projects included the Hillside Terrace housing complex in Japan, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and 4 World Trade Center (which faces the 9/11 Memorial) in New York. The New York Times called his buildings “impeccably polite.” He won architecture’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize, and said buildings should be judged by whether they serve the needs of people—and not by the artfulness of the design.
Washington PostNew York TimesWilliam Anders
Astronaut captured the beauty of “Earthrise”
As an American astronaut, Anders was one of the first three men to orbit the moon as part of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. But he is more famous for taking a picture of the Earth. In preparation for the moon landing the following year, Anders gazed out the window and exclaimed, “Wow, that’s pretty.” He then snapped the photo that became known as “Earthrise,” showing our planet surrounded by space. It became a symbol of the environmental movement and inspired the creation of Earth Day in 1970. For Anders, later CEO of the defense contractor General Dynamics, the photo posed a question: “This is not a very big place. Why can’t we get along?”
Washington PostNew York Times
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