Founder of Stein garden center chain dies

Jack H. Stein, founder of Stein Garden & Gifts in Wisconsin, died of cancer April 25, JSOnline reported. He was 83.

When Stein founded his business in the 1950s, he also realized that the market for gardening supplies was changing. Department stores were getting out of the business. The postwar housing boom was on.

"Everybody was buying houses," his wife said. "And that's when he stepped into the gardening supply business."

Stein's now has annual sales of nearly $90 million at 16 stores. The company employs about 1,000 people in Wisconsin and about 200 more during the busy spring season.

Ill with cancer last year, Stein decided that he wanted to see his firm continue as a family business, even if it needed to be run by a non-family member.

Stein didn't hesitate or mince words when he found the right candidate for the job. Mark Birmingham, former chief executive officer at Allen-Edmonds, came recommended to the family business.

"I decided 'the hell with a search team,'" Stein told Doris Hajewski, Journal Sentinel business reporter, late in 2009. "He's fine. He's better than fine. I'm very, very fortunate."

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