Oral history interviews with Herbert Retzlaff [Sound Recording 02]

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SR1311_T01S2

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Oral history interviews with Herbert Retzlaff [Sound Recording 02]

Date(s)

  • 1989-02-15 (Creation)

Extent

Audiocassette; 00:30:35

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Biographical history

Herbert Retzlaff was born in Königsberg, Germany (which is now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1903. During World War I, his family was evacuated to Berlin. He attended the University of Munich for three years. Inflation in post-World War I Germany drove him to seek employment abroad, ultimately landing him in Portland, Oregon, in 1924, where a fellow German American offered him a job at a gas company. In 1932, he and Lucile N. Martin were married. During the Depression, Retzlaff studied accounting at the Oregon Institute of Technology and became a CPA in 1933. In 1939, he began working as an accountant for Fred Meyer Inc. In 1955, he became a vice president of Fred Meyer Inc., and he retired in 1972. Lucy N. Martin died in 1978, and in 1980, Retzlaff and Helen E. Amacher were married. He was a patron of the Portland Opera, and established the Herbert Retzlaff Chair of Management Accounting endowment at Portland State University in 1986. He died in 1999.

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Scope and content

Tape 1, Side 2. In the first session, conducted on February 15, 1989, Retzlaff discusses his family background and early life in Germany, including his education, the history of the region where he grew up, and his memories of World War I. He discusses the inflation that post-World War I Germany suffered and how it led to him seeking employment abroad, and talks about his immigration to Portland, Oregon, in 1924. He talks about adjusting to life in the United States, jobs he worked when he first arrived, and studying to become an accountant. He then talks about his career as an accountant for Fred Meyer Inc. beginning in 1939. He discusses working with Fred Meyer, and talks about some of his colleagues and about the organizational structure of the company. He talks about his role as vice president in charge of the controller department of Fred Meyer Inc., from 1955 to 1972. He describes the role of the Executive Council, the organizational structure of the controller department, and the transition to computerization. He speaks about merchandising, economic forecasting, and lessons Fred Meyer Inc. learned from its competitors. He describes the growth of the company during his career, as well as purchasing real estate for new store locations.

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Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and the estate of Herbert Retzlaff. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/

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  • English

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