"No one knew or would say just how wealthy he was. He made an estimated fortune of $1,500,000 after retiring as 's partner in 1904. He made another fortune by upsetting hidebound British tradition in retailing merchandise. But the family spokesman says he was "not a wealthy man" when he died... He raised wages and treated employees as co-workers rather than servants. ...[P]eople flocked to his store ...He became a British subject in 1937 and retired from business in 1940 for a second time, but stayed on as an $8,000 a year consultant to the Gordon Selfridge Trust, to which he had sold all his store holdings. His last visit to Ripon was in 1939, when he stayed at the home of Dr. Silas Evans, president of Ripon College. In 1935 he had received an honorary degree from the college. ...He first studied for the Naval Academy at Annapolis... [b]ut he was a quarter of an inch too short, and went to work for Field's instead."
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"Selfrige Dies; Ripon Lad Who Jolted Empire - Forced U.S. Methods Upon British" (May 9, 1947) Milwaukee Sentinel, Part 1, p. 5.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Gordon_Selfridge
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Harry Gordon Selfridge
(January 11, 1858–May 8, 1947) was an American-British retail magnate who founded the London-based department store after retiring as 's partner, opening and selling Harry G. Selfridge and Co. in Chicago in only 2 months, and moving to England. His 20-year leadership of Selfridges led to his becoming one of the most respected and wealthy retail magnates in the United Kingdom. He was known as the 'Earl of Oxford Street'.
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