Myron E. Ullman III, Executive Who Remade Macy’s and J.C. Penney, Dies at 77

Myron E. Ullman III, the unassuming retail executive who gave Macy’s a strategic makeover, revitalized J.C. Penney during two stints as chief executive, and held key positions at Starbucks and the French conglomerate LVMH, died on Aug. 6 in Grand Junction, Colo. He was 77.

His wife, Cathy Emmons Ullman, said the cause of his death, at a hospice facility, was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and other ailments. For much of his career, Mr. Ullman zipped through store aisles on a Segway scooter because of a progressive neurological condition that made walking difficult.

In a business of grandiose personalities, Mr. Ullman stood out for being a measured executive with a keen analytical mind and an intense focus on customer satisfaction, which included stocking merchandise and sizes that were popular in local communities.

“I think the best shopping experience is when there really is a stimulating environment — things you haven’t seen before, variety, newness and freshness,” Mr. Ullman told Women’s Wear Daily in 2015. “Its hard to describe, but you know it when you feel it.”

He was operationally shrewd and lacking in bravado.

“He never sought the spotlight, and he really defined for me and others what servant leadership truly means,” Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, where Mr. Ullman was a director and chairman, said in an interview. “The success that Starbucks enjoyed while he was the lead director, and at my side, is very hard to even measure. It’s incomparable.”

Mr. Ullman didn’t start in retail. After working for IBM as an international account manager and serving as vice president for business affairs at the University of Cincinnati — his alma mater — he joined Federated Department Stores in 1982 as an executive vice president at its Sanger-Harris department store chain in Dallas.