TMCnet News
Hudson, store exec, dies: Raleigh native, 86, ran Hudson Belk(News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jun. 4--Karl G. Hudson Jr., a longtime Raleigh business and civic leader who ran the Triangle's Hudson Belk department stores, died Friday. He was 86. Until his retirement in 1990, Hudson was a familiar sight to customers on the department store floors as executive vice president of Hudson Belk Co. "He was certainly a community leader and very much involved in the progress of Raleigh," said Smedes York, a longtime friend and former mayor of Raleigh. "He was a true gentleman." Hudson began the long association with his family business at age 15, selling menswear in the downtown Raleigh store that his father, Karl Hudson Sr., started in 1915. He left the store during World War II to serve in the U.S. Army. After the war, he returned to the company and rose through the ranks. He took over for his father and guided Hudson Belk's expansion into the suburbs in the 1960s and to Crabtree Valley Mall in 1972. At the time, the Hudsons were part owners of the business with the Belk family of Charlotte. The Belks later merged all the stores but left the Hudson name. Hudson was a major champion of downtown Raleigh business even as it declined through the 1970s and 1980s. The Martin Street store was the hub for downtown, noted for its fashion shows on the street and the long lines of folks who loved its cafeteria. The downtown store closed in 1995, after he had retired. Hudson often could be seen working the sales floor, greeting customers and selecting merchandise himself. Walter Brown Jr. worked for Hudson for 39 years, becoming good friends with his boss. He recalls Hudson as being a man of character, highlighted by his decision to keep the stores closed Sundays so that employees could spend time with their families. "What's right is right," said Brown, who retired as a senior vice president at Hudson Belk in 1991. "That's the way he led his life. He led a life of integrity. "He was a gentleman and one of the most respected people in Raleigh," Brown said. His other major business venture was serving as president of PMC Inc., a Raleigh-based hotel and real estate company developed out of the old Pilot Mills Co. when the business was sold in the late 1960s. Community service Hudson, who was born in Raleigh and attended city schools, served as president of the Raleigh Merchants Bureau, the United Way, the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the United Arts Fund. He was a board member of Wachovia Bank, Carolina Power & Light and the Durham Life Insurance Co., and a trustee of nonprofit groups such as Rex Hospital, Union Theological Seminary and Davidson College. When his retirement was announced in 1989, a Raleigh Times editorial called Hudson a "guru for good" because of the dozens of community efforts he had supported. He explained his involvement in civic projects in a 1985 News & Observer article. "We've been treated in a very favorable way by the community, and we wanted to respond to that," he said in the article. "It was also a family heritage." York said that is what has come to be expected of the Hudson family. "The family is very prominent, very successful and very much in the forefront of this community," he said. Hudson is survived by his wife of 54 years, Catherine; his daughter, Catherine Hudson Godwin; his two sons; Karl Grier Hudson III and Richard Wyatt Hudson; and numerous grandchildren. The funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at White Memorial Presbyterian, 1704 Oberlin Road in Raleigh. |