Fred Meyer, 76, Head of Geary’s Gift Shops, Dies

Fred Meyer, a descendant of German immigrants who took a small gift shop and made it into Geary’s of Beverly Hills, died Monday in Cedars Sinai Medical Center.

The third-generation Californian and chairman of Geary’s was 76 and died after a short struggle with cancer, his son, Bruce, said.

Meyer was a graduate of Los Angeles High School and the University of California, Berkeley, who worked for several local department stores before purchasing Geary’s in 1950.

The shop, opened originally in 1930, then had only nine employees and a limited inventory. At his death, Meyer had built it into a gift and home accessory outlet with annual sales in the millions.

Large Operation

Bruce Meyer said it now has between 150 and 200 employees, 500 patterns of dinnerware (largest in the country), 300 of silver and 200 of crystal in the firm’s two stores a block apart. Much of the business is through its nationwide catalogue sales.

It remains a family unit, he added, with his mother, Ruth, and sister, Susan Blumenthal, all active in the firm. Five grandchildren also survive.

Fred Meyer had remained active in the business until his recent illness, the son said.

Fred Meyer’s grandparents immigrated to California from Frankfurt in the mid-1850s, settling in the San Jose area where they farmed. The family moved to Los Angeles near the turn of the century where Louis Meyer, Fred’s father, fronted several dance bands, playing at hotels and recording sound tracks in the early days of talking pictures.

UCLA Student

Fred Meyer attended UCLA, where he and his wife were members of the Chancellor Associates, a support group, but that campus was not offering degrees in his field and he moved to Berkeley.

He met his wife, a graduate of Mills College, and they married in 1935 and settled in Los Angeles.

A memorial service is scheduled Thursday at 2 p.m. at Wilshire Boulevard Temple. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking contributions to the Ruth and Fred Meyer Scholarship Fund, c/o Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, Calif. 94613, or a favorite charity.