Here are some excerpts and links:
From the HarvardBusiness School:
Carter developed thefirst suburban shopping center in 1947 in Los Angeles and popularized regionalchain stores. Carter started with three regional stores in Los Angeles in 1946,and by 1980, had grown that number to 47. Carter expanded the companynationally through acquisitions, such as the Weinstock stores, Neiman-Marcus,and Waldenbooks. When Carter took over the Broadway Company, annual sales were$30 million. By 1980, the chain under a new name, Carter Hawley Hale, was thenation’s fourth largest department store chain with sales of $2.4 billion.
From LACMA:
In Los Angeles, thepresence in the community of a museum devoted entirely to art was little morethan a hope before 1945. Only in 1965 did a proper building, LACMA, open itsdoors to the public. The late Edward W. Carter was a successful businessman andphilanthropist, and an indefatigable promoter of cultural institutions in LosAngeles. It was Carter who negotiated with the County of Los Angeles for thenew museum’s site in Hancock Park, for the funds to maintain the new museum,and for the transfer of art from the museum’s parent institution, the LosAngeles Museum of History, Science, and Art. Carter was LACMA’s foundingpresident (1961–66) and trustee (1962–96). In these capacities, and as chairmanof LACMA’s board of trustees, Carter exercised profound influence on themuseum’s creation and evolution. In 1989, the year he was replaced as an activetrustee by his wife, Hannah Locke Carter, Edward Carter was named Honorary LifeTrustee.
From the New YorkTimes:
He was appointed tothe University of California's Board of Regents in 1952 by Gov. Earl Warren. Heserved for 36 years, helping guide the university through the student unrest inthe 1960's and advising it on financial matters and investments.
From the LA Times:
A Hollywood HighSchool graduate, Carter attended UCLA while working 40 hours a week atSilverwoods on Wilshire Boulevard, becoming in his own words "a damnedgood salesman." By 1932, he rang up about 25% of the store's sales. Carter went on to Harvard Business School,where he received his master's degree cum laude in 1937.
Even before joiningthe Broadway Department Store as executive vice president in 1946, Carter waswell known in retailing circles. Besides his six years with Silverwoods, healso spent eight years at May Co., rising to the post of divisional merchandisemanager. In addition, he was an account manager with the Scudder, Stevens &Clark investment firm in Boston. Carterbecame president of the three-store Broadway chain in 1947, taking charge of aconcern that he later said ranked "last among Los Angeles departmentstores in both size and in stature."
Within months, Carterbuilt one of the nation's first suburban shopping centers, the Crenshaw Center,on a former golf course. (The Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza sits there now.)During the boom years after World War II, Carter studied the freeway map andbuilt his stores accordingly. To financehis ambitious expansion plans, Carter sold stock to Hale Bros. Stores of SanFrancisco in 1949, and the two chains merged in 1950 to become Broadway-HaleInc. As with all of Broadway's later acquisitions, the Hale operation retainedits name and management and was run as a separate division. Other acquisitions followed with suchrespected names as Emporium Capwell, Neiman Marcus, Waldenbooks and BergdorfGoodman. Carter was considered well versed in consumer trends and an innovativemerchant who chose a decentralized approach to retailing that allowedBroadway-Hale's various chains to operate independently with substantialautonomy.
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