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. . . presenting HERBERT H. WILSON
Swin^ nominee ^or
MAN DF THE MONTH
by MORI GREINER
IN this season of good resolutions, as dreams are built and graphs prO' iccted for the new year, the busiest planner in Kansas City is Herbert Wilson, a graying, bespectacled and immaculately groomed merchandising expert recently selected to guide the destinies of the Chamber of Commerce throughout 1949.
At 56, Wilson is a wiry fishing enthusiast who loves the out-of-doors but lives in a penthouse atop a cooperatively owned apartment, spending 48 to 50 weeks of every year in the purely urban activities which accompany directors' meetings, charity campaigns, and the operation of a large retail business.
His retail career has been self-made and successful. It began 44 years ago in a St. Louis grocery store and butcher shop where Herb worked after school and on Saturdays. Chickens were the first items he ever prepared for the consumer public. Each Friday evening he killed, plucked and cleaned them, readying them for the Saturday rush and the Sunday dinner. Even now, he instinctively remembers Friday as "chicken kilHng night."
Wilson was born in Hillsboro, Missouri, the son of a newspaper editor. His family moved to St. Louis and later, in 1906, to Los Angeles. On the West Coast, all of the Wilson boys became newspapermen or print
ers. All but Herb. He enrolled in night school and got a daytime job delivering packages for a department store called Ville de Paris. He soon was promoted to stock boy, and in succession became receiving clerk, shipping clerk, salesman, window trimmer. He was advertising manager, then a buyer, then merchandising manager, and, finally, general merchandising manager and executive vice president of the Dyas Company. In this capacity he supervised the operation of two large retail stores and an apparel factory producing outer garments for both men and women. His rise from deliveryman to vice president took exactly 16 years.
Clothes design claimed much of Wilson's attention at the Dyas Company. The divided skirt worn by horsewomen before the advent of riding breeches was his creation, and he fathered the boxer style undershort now worn by men. The shorts began as elastic-topped gym trunks, but their popularity eventually merited adaption to more general wear.
Although Mr. Wilson has a slight New York accent, he has lived half his life in Missouri, the other half being divided among California, Washington and seven trips to Europe.
In the sunshine state, where he lived and worked for 25 years, Wilson found much to admire. He occasion